The Life and Times of Ryan Evans
by Riku Evans
Summary: This is pretty much just a story mainly about Ryan and his everyday life. SLASH
1. Why Cowboys are My Frenemies

-1**Summary:** This is just about Ryan and how his everyday life goes.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the High School Musical characters or anything having to do with _Hairspray_ or any products of companies included in this fic.

**Warnings:** This story contains slash and boy/boy pairings. If you don't like that, don't read this.

**The Life and Times of Ryan Evans**

**Chapter 1: Why Cowboys are my Frenemies**

"Oh my! gasped Sharpay. "

_"Why?" _I silently asked myself.

Sharpay seemed to know exactly what I was thinking, because she leaned over to me and said, "Don't worry Ry. Just pay attention to my beauty and fabulousness all period, and you won't have any problems."

"_Right,"_ I thought. "_That should be __**really**__ easy."_

You're probably wondering right now what's going on that is so horrible. Well I'll tell you. This week is Spirit Week at East High. I know you're probably thinking, "Why is Spirit Week so bad? " For the most part it isn't that bad. I'm fine with being proud of the school and everything. The bad part is the dress up days that come with it.

Don't get me wrong, dress up days can be fun, like Monday when it was "reverse gender day". Sharpay and I dressed up as each other. This way we could still match_ and_ Sharpay could have total control over my wardrobe for the day. Not many of the other guys at school decide to dress up that day, although Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez did decide to exchange clothing.

Gabby looked absolutely _adorable_ in Troy's jeans and one of his shirts that was a couple of sizes too big for her. Troy, however, was wearing an outfit that was both disturbing and somewhat kinky at the same time. He wore a pair of Gabriella's frilly capris (which were extremely tight and made his butt look _fabulous_), a white t-shirt that was way too small so it was very tight and exposed about two and a half inches of his perfectly toned stomach. And, to top it all off, he wore a headband that was covered with colorful flowers. I'd seen Gabby wear this outfit several times before and it looked cute on her. On Troy the outfit was… let's just say it was "different". I had a hard time not staring at him for the entire day. Of course, I have that problem just about every day.

Yes, in case you haven't yet figured it out, I, Ryan Evans, am gay. I also have a major crush on Troy, "the basketball boy," Bolton. I've liked him since sixth grade and still haven't gotten over him even now during our sophomore year of high school.

That's why when I found out he was once again in my homeroom, along with being in four of my other classes this year, I was both jumping up and down and screaming in frustration at the same time inside my head.

So, now that I have gone way off topic and given you a little bit of information about me and my life, let's get back to the problem at hand.

Today's dress up theme was "Cowboy Day". Shar was wearing a short denim skirt, a white blouse, pink cowgirl boots, and a pink cowgirl hat. I was wearing black boots, blue jeans, a red and blue plaid (gag!) shirt, and a black cowboy hat (yuck!). I hate this cowboy crap, but wearing it keeps me from having to hear Shar's shrill shriek telling me to wear it "or else" (or else what Sharpay?). So that's why I'm dressed in this stupid outfit.

The reason for me and Sharpay reacting the way that we did was that Mr. Roberts, our Spanish teacher ( who you need to know is a complete homophobe and must never find out that I am gay and especially that I think he is kind of cute), had just stood up. He was wearing a black hat, brown boots, a yellow shirt, and an extremely tight pair of jeans that made his ass even harder not to look at than usual.

And then, to make matters even worse, Troy Bolton walked in. His father had to talk to him this morning, so I hadn't seen him during homeroom and this was the first time I was seeing him this morning. Because I hadn't seen him, it was a shock when he walked into the room. He was wearing a beautiful sky blue shirt, a brown cowboy style vest, a brown hat, brown boots, and a ridiculously tight pair of jeans that made his butt look even better than mister R's. I would have never thought that could be possible if it wasn't Troy Bolton.

"Oh shit" I breathed as he walked in.

I hate to say this Ryan, "Sharpay whispered after she saw him, " but you're screwed."

"No kidding," I said back.

As Troy walked by he turned in my direction and said "Hey hot stuff" and did that cocky hot guy thing where they point, wink, and make a clicking noise with their tongue (think Link Larkin in _Hairspray_).

_"Oh my God!"_ I think to myself as an extreme feeling of happiness washes over me. Then I hear Sharpay giggling like a complete idiot. "_Duh."_ I should have figured that out.Troy was just messing with Sharpay by fake flirting with her.he does that occasionally and I should have known that was happening here.

Troy laughs and goes to his desk. The bell rings and Mr. Roberts walks to the front of the room. _"Let the staring begin."_

I raise my hand to ask a question.

"Yes Ryan?"

"Where do we shove the- er, how tight is- I mean what ass- er…" I say, embarrassing myself more with every word.

" I think what my verbally challenged brother is trying to ask is what we should do with our homework." said Sharpay.

_Thank you_ I mouth to her.

_You owe me _she mouths back.

"O…kay" says Mr. Roberts. "To answer your question Ryan, please pass your homework packets to the front and those of you at the front, please pass them to the side near my desk and I will collect them."

We passed in our homework as we were told and Mr. Roberts started class.

_"This isn't so bad," _I thought as we began, _"As long as I don't talk at all this period, I'll be fine." _As if. Not talking wouldn't be too hard. It was not staring that was going t be a challenge. Even so, I was sure that I could survive the period. That was until…

"Okay class, I'm going to split you into groups now."

_"What!!"_

_"It's okay,"_ I told myself, _"I probably won't get paired with **HIM** anyway."_ I highly doubted I would be that lucky. That's how horrible my luck is. I anxiously waited for him to call my group and finally I heard my name.

"Group 4: Ryan Evans, Taylor McHessie, Gabriella Montez, Izzy Ka- Katsoot- K, and Troy Bolton."

"Eep!" _"Wait. Was that out loud?"_

Apparently it was because the whole class was staring at me.

"Excuse me, Mr. Roberts."

"Yes Sharpay?"

"May I please be in my brother's group with him? You see, Ryan hasn't been feeling very well today and I think he would feel more comfortable if I was in a group with him."

Mr. Roberts looked over at me. He looked me up and down and seemed to be in deep in thought. "I think that would be a good idea Sharpay. Okay, your group can have six people.

As we moved into our groups, Sharpay leaned over and whispered, "Now you_ really _owe me." I knew that she meant it too. Sharpay almost never helps me not expecting something in return.

We sat down and began to work. A few minutes in, Izzy leaned over and asked, "Ry, what's wrong with you?"

I smiled. Besides Sharpay, Izzy was the only person at school who called me "Ry". He's called me that ever since we started being friends last year. We'd been friends ever since the day I found him crying in the bathroom after being tormented by Chad last year.

"It's nothing" I told him.

"Don't lie to me. I know that something's wrong. You're acting weird."

"Boys!" Sharpay snapped.

"I'll tell you after class" I whispered. We continued with our work until the period ended.

"Okay," Izzy said. "Now you have to tell me what's going on."

"Okay," I said. "well you saw Mr. R and Smiles today, right?" I asked him, using our codename for Troy.

" Oh," he said. "So you were distracted by their-"

"assets" I cut him off so that he wouldn't have to say it in the middle of the hallway.

"Yeeeah, so what are you doing right now?" he asked.

"The same thing I've been telling you I was doing today for the past two weeks" I said, not believing that he could have forgotten.

"I know" he said, chuckling. "I just wanted to mess with you. I'll come with you."

So we headed down to the theater. Today was the auditions for the autumn musical. This performance was not going to be a student original. For the fall musical, we were doing _Hairspray_. Another change was that there were no pairs auditions required. This didn't get any protest from me and Sharpay because it meant I didn't have to deal with her snapping and she could have the stage all to herself.

As Izzy and I walked into the theater, I knew something was up. Sharpay was running up to us with a smile that I absolutely hate. It was the look that she always had on her face when she was about to ask me to do something I _really_ didn't want to do.

"There's my to favorite boys!"

"No Shar" I said without even letting her finish.

"But Ryyyan, you didn't even let me finish!"

" I don't need to. Whatever you're about to ask, I can tell it's something I don't want to do.

"You owe me for last period, Ryan!" she shouted.

"She's right," Izzy said. "You do owe her."

I glared at him. Then a thought popped in my head. "Wait. You said you needed _both _of us, right?"

"Yeah, I need two people."

I grinned and said, "Okay, I'll do it. But you have to help too, Iz."

He looked at me liked I had just simultaneously slapped him and called him an idiot, which really I had, just not physically.

He glared at me. "I hate you."

I smiled a devilish grin at him. "You should have known this would happen. She _did_ address the _two_ of us. If I didn't have to do it, you wouldn't either. But as you pointed out Iz, I _do_ owe Shar for last period."

Izzy looked absolutely pissed. He was mad not only at me, but also at himself for putting himself in this situation in the first place.

"Okay" he hissed. "What do you want us to do?"

"You just have to sing backup for my song."

"That doesn't sound too bad" said Izzy.

I frowned. "What song?"

**A/N: **So this is the first chapter. Let me know what you think about it. Also, any suggestions on where it should go will be greatly appreciated, even though I am already about halfway through the second chapter. Once again I would like to say please review, review ,review. This is my first fic so please don't be _to_ harsh.


	2. The New Girl in Town

-1**A/N:** I would like to thank my three reviewers for their wonderful comments. They made me feel really good. I hope you all continue to read this. Also, I would like to say that I should have four reviews, but the fourth person is my dummy head best friend who thinks that just because she's my friend that she can get away with not reviewing. And to answer a question that was asked, yes, Izzy is a made up character, as is another character that will be introduced in this chapter. This chapter picks up right where the last one left off.

**Warnings:** This is a slash fic, meaning that it contains boy/boy pairings. If you're not into that, don't read this and don't give me negative comments for it. Also, throughout the story there may be some slightly "grown up" language, which is why this is rated T.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned High School Musical, Zac Effron would already be mine by now. However, I do not own High School Musical and Zac is not mine. The only characters in this story that are mine are Izzy Katsutphrakis (pronounced "cat-sue-fra-kiss") and "the new girl".

**The Life and Times of Ryan Evans**

**Chapter 2: The New Girl in Town**

"What song?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing too bad," Sharpay replied. "Just _The_ _New Girl in Town_, you know, the song that Amber sings after Tracy joins the Corny Collins Show."

"You want us to be Tammy and Shelley?!" Izzy shouted, not believing what he was hearing.

_"Of course"_ I thought to myself. "You're making us to play girls" I said.

Sharpay grinned devilishly. "Well you are my two favorite girls in the whole wide world."

"I'm touched, Shar" Izzy said. But you know I still hate you for making us do this."

"Yeah, well, I don't care" she said with that annoyingly smug smile she wears whenever she gets what she wants. "So Ryan, you will be doing Tammy's part and Izzy, you will be doing Shelley's part."

We nodded and then Izzy asked, "Which part is which?'

"I'll do air and you'll do hair" I explained. "And then when I sing _She's hip_" I sang, "You sing-"

"_So cool_" he finished.

"And then I sing, _I'm gonna-_"

"we know!" we snapped.

So we quickly finished going over our parts and then sat down and waited for the auditions to start.

"The first auditions will be for the part of Amber Von Tussle" announced Ms. Darbus. "And the first person up is Jessica Reynolds."

"Who?" Sharpay asked me.

"I don't know that name" I told her.

At that moment, a cute brunette girl walked up on the stage. "Which song will you be singing, my dear?" Darbus asked.

"_The New Girl in Town_" she answered.

Duh. That's the only song Amber has a part in, other than "_(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs"_, in which she mainly has speaking parts, and _"The Nicest Kids in Town"_, where she just does backup.

"May I please have my friends come up and do the backup with me?" she asked with an adorable pleading smile.

"Of course sweetie." Uh-oh. This was not good. She hadn't even started singing and she was already winning Darbus over.

Jessica then sang her song along with her fellow freshmen friends. I am sad to say that she was incredible. When she finished, Darbus was beaming and Sharpay looked like she was about to explode. I knew exactly why. This was starting to look a lot like last year. If Sharpay lost _another_ show to a new girl, especially someone younger than her, heads would roll. I was beginning to fear for my safety at that point because I knew that if Jessica wasn't Sharpay's victim, I would be.

"Ooo! This should be exciting! Our next person auditioning for Amber is Sharpay Evans!" Ms. Darbus exclaimed with obvious excitement. Thank you Ms. Darbus. On a scale of one to ten, Sharpay's anger had been a seventy-nine. After Darbus's reaction to seeing her name, her anger dropped to about a sixty-two. She was still pissed, but at least I now knew that my head was safe.

Sharpay, Izzy, and I walked up to the stage and sang. I felt great after we finished. We did _much_ better than Jessica and her friends. Ms. Darbus was up and applauding like her life depended on it. With Sharpay's current mood, it probably did, but Darbus didn't know that. Shar's anger level was now closer to her normal level when she's angry, a measly thirty-one out of ten.

It was actually somewhat frightening singing with Shar during the audition. Every time we sang about "the new girl in town", Sharpay would glare at Jessica so hard I was afrid the poor girl was going to drop dead right there. The really scary part was when Sharpay sang about getting her after school. I decided at that point that I wouldn't even leave Sharpay's side even to pee for the rest of the day, at least until we got home, just to make sure that Jessica didn't get killed.

When we were finished, it was time for people to audition for the next role. "Next will be the auditions for our lead, the wonderful Tracy Turnblad" said Ms. Darbus. "The first person up is Gabriella Montez."

As Gabby walked by, I whispered "Good luck". I found out I didn't need to. She sang with that beautiful voice of hers the song _"Good Morning Baltimore"_. It was great. I felt so happy for her as she left the stage.

"Okay, next is… are you also auditioning for Tracy's part, miss Reynolds?" asked Darbus.

"Yes" replied Jessica. "I thought I'd try for my two favorite parts to give me a better chance at getting a part I really want. Although," she added, if I can't get either one of those parts I'd happily take any one that you gave me, Ms. Darbus."

"What a suck up!" Sharpay hissed.

"Right. And you _never_ do anything like that" I said sarcastically. "Now be quiet. She's about to sing."

Wow. If I thought that Gabriella was great, then Jessica was out of this world. I think that even Nikki Blonsky would be out of a job after someone heard Jessica. It was now very clear that Sharpay no longer had to worry about her part being stolen because Darbus had just found her Tracy. Too bad for Gabriella.

It was my turn soon, just as soon as all the other people trying out for my part finally finished. And then I saw him. Troy Bolton was here to audition. He was going to steal my part! Troy may be the most gorgeous being in the universe, but that doesn't mean I was going to just _let_ him take the part I wanted. If he did better than me, things were going to get _really _ugly_ really_ fast.

"And the last person for the part of Link Larkin is…"

What! Did she just say the _last_ person?! I can't believe that she forgot me!

"Ryan Evans."

Okay, now I'm confused. Had Ms. Darbus just forgotten Troy Bolton? He didn't seem to notice. Good. If he didn't say anything, then Darbus would skip over him and he wouldn't get the part. I would of course feel bad that he didn't get to try out for the part of Link, but I would feel worse if I had to murder Troy for taking my part away from me. So it was better that he wasn't saying anything.

I went up on the stage and performed. I sang _"Ladies' Choice"_, which I realize is kind of an ironic song for me to sing. I would have rather sang _"Without Love",_ but I kind of needed the others in order to do that one. I also might have sang _"It Takes Two"_, but it wouldn't show off my voice enough to be a good audition song.

I thought I did absolutely terrible. I accidentally sang the second verse and had to modify the performance and finish the song without singing the first verse. Luckily, Darbus didn't seem to notice because she stood up, applauded me, and told me how beautifully I had sung.

"Next," said Ms. Darbus, "We will have auditions for the part of Corny Collins. Oh! I t seems we only have one person auditioning for this role.

That wasn't a surprise. Almost every guy in the Drama club tried out for the part of Link. Those who didn't were planning to try out for Seaweed. I wondered who Corny would be.

"Please come to the stage Mr. Bolton."

What? Troy was auditioning to be Corny? I guess it wasn't a mistake that Darbus hadn't called him for Link. I had to wonder why he chose Corny when he was perfect to be Link.

Troy went up and sang _"The Nicest Kids in Town"_. I didn't think he would do that well with the song because his voice was so different than James Marsden's. However, he did wonderfully. He'd be guaranteed the part even if he wasn't the only one who auditioned.

After the applause ended, I stood up to leave.

'"What are you doing?" Izzy asked.

"Leaving" I told him.

"Why?"

"Do you really want to stay hear through the rest of the auditions?" I asked him.

"No, but can we at least wait through the auditions for Seaweed?" he asked.

Oh no. He was doing the puppy dog face. I really hated it when he did that. Even though we weren't dating any more, I still couldn't say no to him whenever he did that. "Fine" I said, sitting back down. After six completely horrendous auditions, I found out why Izzy wanted to wait. "Let's see," Darbus said as she looked at her list, "Last, but certainly not least, we have mister Katsutphrakis."

"You?!" I turned to Izzy.

"Yeah." He grinned sheepishly and got up to sing. He sang _"Run and Tell That"_.

It was amazing. I knew Izzy could sing, but not like that. We sang together a couple of times when we hung out, but screaming _"Since U Been Gone"_ wasn't quite the same as auditioning for a musical. This time, his voice sounded amazing. I also had no idea he was planning to audition. He hadn't been in acting class last year, or in drama club. I found out earlier this year that he was interested in acting. He had taken basic acting over the summer, which was why he had said no when I offered to take him with me and Shar to Lava Springs. He was also taking the advanced acting class with me this year and looking into joining drama club. But I never thought that he would try out for a part in the first show of the year, especially a musical.

He came back and smiled at me and Sharpay's dumbfounded expressions. "Was I that bad?" he asked.

"Where did you learn to sing like that?" Sharpay asked.

"You've heard me sing before" he said.

"No, I've heard you _scream_ before" she replied. "I have not, however, heard you sing so wonderfully before."

"Thanks Sharpay" he said, "It makes me feel really good knowing that the queen of the theater thinks I'm good."

"I know" she said. "Well, I'll see you girls later"

"Bye Shar" I said, pulling Izzy off to the side. "Why didn't you tell me you were auditioning?" I asked him.

"I wanted it to be a surprise" he said.

But I'm your _best_ friend" I said. "You could have at least told _me."_

"Yeah, but that look on your face was absolutely priceless!" he said while he laughed at me. "Oh, and you better _smile_," he said with a wink, "'cause look who's coming now."

_"Please tell me he doesn't mean what I think he means"_ I thought to myself as I turned around. Sure enough, Troy Bolton was walking directly toward us.

"Hey guys" he said.

"Hi Troy" Izzy said.

"What? Oh, hi Troy" I said. _"Keep your eyes __**up**__ Ryan!"_

"You guys were really great just now" Troy said.

"Thanks" Izzy and I said simultaneously.

"Whoa" Troy said.

"What?" we asked in unison.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

"Do what?" I think we were starting to freak him out now.

"That!" he said.

"What?!" we asked, starting to get annoyed with this.

"That freaky talk at the same time thing" he said.

"Oh" we said.

"It's just because we're bestest friends in the whole wide world." Izzy answered.

Troy still looked somewhat frightened. "Anywho, as I was saying, you guys were great. I didn't even know that you could sing, Izzy."

"Yeah, I love singing, but I haven't been quite comfortable at this school yet to express myself."

"So I guess this means you are comfortable enough now" Troy said.

"You betcha" Izzy said. "So you better watch your back, Troy Bolton, 'cause I'm gonna steal all future shows right from under your feet."

"Really?" Troy said, laughing. "Well I guess I'll do that. Oh! And Ryan, I wanted to talk to you too. Your audition was fab- I mean, it was fantastic. There's no doubt in my mind that you're going to be Link."

"You really think so, Troy?" I said. _"Stop acting like a thirteen-year-old girl, you idiot!"_

"You were really good too Troy. You're definitely getting the part" I said. "I mean, you would get it even if you weren't the only one who auditioned" I added when I saw that he was about to comment on what I had just said.

"Thanks" Troy said, laughing again.

_"Boy I love that smile"_ I thought.

"So I guess I'll see you guys later" Troy said. "Oh, and at callbacks on Monday, since Darbus for some reason thinks that I still need a callback even though I'm the only one who auditioned."

"Yeah," I said, "she seems to think that she has to do that even though it totally doesn't make sense."

Troy laughed. "I guess it's better than her not being fair at all" he said. "Anyways, I'll see you guys later." He then walked out of the theater.

"What was _that_?" I asked, turning to Izzy.

"What was what?" he asked innocently.

"You were just flirting with Troy Bolton" I said.

"So? You were even worse. You really think so Troy?" said in a high pitched girly voice while twirling his hair with his finger.

I wasn't _that_ bad" I said.

"Yes you were! You were acting like a thirteen-year-old girl" he said.

So I guess I wasn't the only one who thought that. "Well you're the one who said he didn't like Troy" I said.

"That doesn't mean I don't think he's hot. I just don't want to date him, or kiss him, or anything else like that. Anyways, I know how much you like him and I would never get in the way of your imaginary romance, Ryan. You know that I just naturally flirt with everyone I meet. I can't help it. I mean, do you remember that week last year when Sharpay was convinced that I was head over heels in love with her?"

I laughed. I did remember that week. It was also the week that Izzy and I were going out (yes, we only went out for a week. We broke up because we realized that even though we were perfect for each other as friends, we didn't work as boyfriends). Sharpay had asked me to tell Izzy that she didn't like him, thinking that it would spare his feelings if I told him instead of her. I told her no since I knew that there was no point. She decided that she would have to wait for the right moment and tell him herself. Luckily, she never had to embarrass herself by doing that because later that week she walked in on the two of us in the middle of an intense make out session. This resulted in her becoming comfortable enough around Izzy that they became fairly good friends. It also resulted in me nearly getting my ears screamed off by Sharpay for almost letting her get embarrassed like that.

"Yeah," I told him, "I remember that week."

"So that proves my point" he said. "You have nothing to worry about."

"You're right" I said. "And it's not like he would ever really be interested in either one of us, right?"

"Right. Oh! There's the bell!" Izzy said. "I should get going or I'll be late for science, and you know how weird Mr. Allawayas is about tardies."

"Right. And Ms. Montana wouldn't be extremely happy with me if I was late for English" I said. So we both gathered our stuff and headed off to class, with me wishing that there was even a tiny chance that what I had just said about Troy wasn't true.

But I didn't quite get away before…

"Ryan!" I heard a girl call. Jessica Reynolds was running up to me at full speed, looking extremely excited.

"Hi Jessica" I said as she approached me.

"Hi!" she said. "Today was fun, wasn't it? I wonder what part I'll get."

"Well you better hope it's not Amber, or you might find Sharpay "accidentally" jamming her stiletto in the back of your head" I told her.

She laughed. "Oh you're funny Ryan!" She actually thought I was kidding. "So Ryan," she said, getting a little shy now, "Would you like to go to the mall with me after school today?"

_"Did she just ask me out?"_ I thought. "Jessica," I started to tell her that I couldn't go, but then she cut me off.

"First of all, call me Jessie" she said. "Second it wouldn't be like a date or anything. I know that you're gay, and I get the feeling that you have somebody that you like. Izzy's invited too. You can let me know during drama next period."

Wait, she was in my drama class? I guess I needed to work on being a little bit more observant.

"I'll tell Izzy and I'll think about it." I said.

"Great!" she said. "Well, I'd better let you get to class. Toodles!"

"See you later" I said, and this time when I left, I actually made it to class.

After a painfully boring, period-long discussion about the last chapter we read in _Alive_, the class finally ended. I hurriedly found Izzy and told him about Jessie's invitation.

"It sounds like fun" he said.

So, just before class started, we told Jessie that we'd go with her. Now I just had to hope that Sharpay didn't kill me for hanging out with "the new girl in town".

**End of Chapter 2**

**A/N:** So there's chapter two. Let me know what you thought. I also want to go off topic for a second and say that two nights ago I went to _27 Dresses_ (because it takes a real man to go to a chick flick) and it was great. I also discovered in that movie that I really like James Marsden. Not only is he a good singer, he is also a really good actor and really good looking. Anyway, let me know what you thought of my story and please, please, **_PLEASE_** review.


	3. Why Does Everyone Have to be at the Mall

-1**Author's Note:** I am so sorry about the giant delay. A lot of stuff has been going on lately. I moved to my aunt's house in the spring, which is also the home of my highly homophobic uncle who tracks everything that I do on my computer. I escaped over the summer, but I hardly wrote at all. Then I discovered the Twilight series and couldn't stop reading. Also, school started, so I've been busy with that. On top of all of that, I just haven't been able to get anything in this silly head of mine to add to the story. Well, I finally finished, and I am very proud of myself.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own High School Musical, Kingdom Hearts, Maggie Moo's, or any other products mentioned in this story.

**The Life and Times of Ryan Evans**

**Chapter 3: Why Does _Everyone_ Have to Be at the Mall?**

The rest of my day was fairly uneventful. The most interesting thing that happened after free period was that Izzy actually ate school lunch. Normally he brings a lunch from home, but they were out of sandwich necessities. Usually when this happens, he decides to just starve himself instead of eating. He hasn't trusted cafeteria food ever since elementary school, when they slapped mysterious grey goop on his tray with a bun next to it, claiming it was sloppy joe. The next day, they gave him the same stuff with a side of cornbread and called it chili. Izzy had pretty much avoided school lunch since then.

So today was a big event, since he had always refused to eat school lunch in the past. He had a grilled cheese sandwich, french fries, and milk. It was a simple lunch, but at least it was a start.

"So what finally made you `stoop down to the level of eating that filth`?" I asked him, quoting what he always said about school lunch.

"I'm tired, hungry, and Jacobs made me stay in for P.A.T even though I made up the assignment last week, so please just leave me alone and let me eat my lunch in peace, okay?"

"Okay. You know, there's no reason to be snappy about it. She did the same thing to me."

He gave me a glare that actually made me twitch a bit with fear. Right. I had forgotten about rule number one with Izzy: if he has food, let him eat it, and if he doesn't, give him something to eat. Otherwise, you must face the wrath of a hungry Izzy, which is at the same level of terrifying as an angry Sharpay. I had just broken that rule, and if I didn't shut up, I was going to regret it. "Sorry," I said, "I'll let you eat." So he ate his food and I didn't die.

After lunch, the school day went on without anything else interesting happening. Wait, I lied. Something did happen. During Phys Ed at the end of the day, Bolton made us play basketball, which I absolutely _**hate**_. The only thing that I have ever liked about basketball is Troy. I don't know exactly why I hate it so much. I think the main reason I hate basketball is that I associate it with a feeling of being lower than dirt. Basketball always seemed to be the sport where they did the most insulting whenever you mess up. My self esteem already has enough issues, so I really didn't like them doing that. So I started to dislike basketball more and more and now I only sort of play whenever my P.E teacher says I have to. I say I sort of play because I just kind of sulk around and don't really play. Well this time was different. Coach Bolton noticed this time that I wasn't really playing.

"Evans," he said, "why are you walking around my gym like a zombie instead of playing?"

"I don't know how to do anything in basketball," I told him. Okay, it wasn't the _whole_ reason, but it was at least part of the truth. I couldn't tell him that I absolutely despised the sport that he had dedicated his life to. Well I could, but only if I wanted a guaranteed F.

Well he seemed to be buying it at least. "Okay," he said, "You'll just have to learn. Troy!"

Troy ran over to us . "What is it, coach?" he asked.

"I need you to teach Evans how to play," he said.

"No problem," Troy replied. And with that, Coach Bolton left to go terrorize another poor drama kid.

"So I think we should work on shooting first," Troy said. He tossed me a basketball and I attempted to catch it, but it hit me in the chest instead. Troy laughed. "Maybe we should work on passing first."

I glared at him, then went to retrieve the ball. I dribbled it back with my feet and then, cringing, picked it up. "What's wrong?" Troy asked. I tried to resist the urge, but couldn't and pulled out one of the disinfectant wipes that I have with me in my pockets wherever I go. Troy laughed at me again. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I've known some of these guys for quite a while, and know where their hands have been," I told. "and because of that, I don't want to touch this nasty germy thing without cleaning it first."

"Whatever. Let's just start working. Now first, bring the ball up, and then push it towards my chest." I tried it, nearly decapitating him in the process. "Not quite," he said. "Why don't you try it more like this." He tossed the ball, and I scrunched up my face, waiting for it to hit me. Somehow, by some strange miracle, I actually caught the ball. I smiled, all proud of myself. "Good job," Troy said. "now toss it back to me, but aim for the chest this time."

"Okay," I said, and tried again. I am happy to say that I did not decapitate him. I did, however, almost make him be a soprano and unable to have children for the rest of his life.

"Okay let's try this one more time," Troy said. "and this time aim for my _chest_."

I threw the ball to him one last time and… he caught it! Yaaaay! I didn't kill Troy Bolton with my horrible basketball skills! "That was great Ryan," Troy said. We worked on passing for about five minutes more before he decided we could move on to shooting.

Okay, so line up with the basket, bend your knees, and push the ball with you legs. Don't chuck it with your arms. You want to mostly use your legs in the shot." I tried doing what he said, but ended up making the ball go about five feet to the right of the basket. "Not quite. Try it again, and remember what I old you," Troy said. I tried again and this time it was eight feet to the left. The ball also bounced off the wall and hit Chad Danforth in the head. Oops.

Chad turned around and I knew I was in trouble. "What's your problem Evans!" He yelled as he stomped his way toward me.

"I'm sorry Chad. I didn't mean to," I said. "I'm just kind of useless when it comes to basketball."

"You're useless all right. You're just a stupid, useless little fa-"

"Chad calm down, it was an accident," Troy cut in. "It's really my fault. I just didn't get him set up quite right."

Chad glared at me and said, "Make sure it doesn't happen again," before stomping back off to his game.

"So let's try it again," Troy said as he tossed me the ball. I lined up and was about to try again when suddenly I felt arms snaking around me and hands grabbing my arms. "You still don't have it quite right," I heard Troy say. I could feel his warm breath on my neck. I could also feel myself starting to do a pretty uncontrollable thing that could get me in some trouble if anyone noticed.

_"Crap! Okay Ryan, calm down. Think of something, anything, to get your mind off of the fact that the most gorgeous guy in school is currently pressed up against you and has his hands on your arms." _I desperately tried to calm myself down. _"Puppies, unicorns, butterflies. Come on, think of something! Let's see… Gabriella naked! Eeeeew!" _That did the trick. I was now totally and completely turned off.

"So put this hand here, and this hand over here," Troy said as he adjusted my hands. "Now bend your knees like this," he now pushed down on me and out on my legs a bit. "And now try it, but just use your hands and arms to guide the ball. Push with your legs." I tried, and the ball landed one foot short and to the left. "That's a _lot_ better," Troy said. We tried it over and over until finally on the tenth try… I made it in!

I couldn't believe it. I actually got the ball in the basket! I started jumping up and down and doing a little victory dance. "That was great Ryan!" Troy said as he ran up to me. "I'm so proud of you!" And then the weirdest thing happened. Troy Bolton hugged me

I was completely helpless. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't just push him away. That would make it look like I wanted nothing to do with him, which was far from the truth. I decided to do the only ting that sounded very appealing. I let him keep hugging me and decided to take in the scent of his hair. It smelled kind of like Sharpay's. I was surprised that Troy would use such girly smelling hair products. If you're wondering why what my sister's hair smells like, it's because she has so much of it that it flips around everywhere, especially when she's angry. Being her "little" brother, I have made Shar fairly pissed many times and have been smacked in the face with it.

The sensation of having Troy hug me was absolutely amazing. I could have stayed there forever. However, I wasn't able to because the bell rang after four wonderful seconds of Troy holding me.

As I felt him release me, I had to resist the urge to grab onto him and not let go. As he backed away from me, I saw that Troy had a nervous look on his face. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "I was just so excited, I just couldn't really control myself."

"It's fine," I said. "Don't worry about it. It's not like it really bothers me when guys grab me." _"Crap! That sounded weird!"_ "I mean-"

"It's fine," he said. "Don't worry about it. I get what you mean."

We headed out of the gym and into the locker room, where I think I broke my old world record for the fastest time getting in and out of there. As I raced out, that stupid cowboy hat slipped down and I got distracted trying to fix it, causing me to bump into somebody as I exited the locker room. _"Please don't let it be Chad,"_ I thought as I looked to see who it was.

The sight that greeted me was almost more frightening than a pissed off Chad. Jessie was standing in front of me with a grin so wide it looked like her face would split in two. "Hi Ryan!" she said with a little too much enthusiasm.

"Uh, hi Jessie," I said.

"So are you ready to go?" she asked.

"What?" she gave me an annoyed look. "Oh, right! The mall. I just need to get some stuff from my locker. I'll get Izzy too, while I'm there. Where should we meet you?"

"Well do you think you could give me a ride there? I kind of don't have my license yet."

"Sure. There's only one problem. I haven't gotten my own car yet. My parents ordered one, but it won't come in for another month still. Sharpay will let me use her car, but you'll have to ride home with us first. Why don't you meet us in front of the school?"

"Okay! I'll see you in a few minutes then," she said before running off.

I went to my locker and started to gather my stuff together. I looked to my left just in time to see Izzy coming towards his locker (which is right next to mine).

"Hey," he said. "Are you ready?"

"Yep," I said.

"Cool," Wow. This was a _fascinating_ conversation. "So how are we getting there?" he asked.

"I'm driving," I said.

"Awesome! So you got your car?"

"No," I answered.

"Then how-"

"We're taking Shar's car."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" he screamed (and people call _me_ a drama queen). "Why do we have to take that stupid thing?"

"Because it's the only car we have currently available to us," I told him.

"But it's so… PINK."

"I thought you liked the color pink," I said, thinking about the three pink shirts he had at his house and my pink hat that he still hadn't returned yet.

"I do, it's just that the car is _hot_ pink, the only shade of pink that I have trouble handling. It's also so girly. When I'm riding in it, I feel like I have a huge sign floating above my head saying, `Hello world. I'm a big flaming homo.`"

"But you are one," I said, grinning at my own brilliance.

He glared at me and said, "That's not the point. I don't want to ride in the Barbie car."

"Well you're just going to have to deal with it, unless you don't want to go."

He stood there for a few seconds, acting like he was seriously considering not going. "Fine, I'll go, but only if we can go to Maggie Moo's an you'll buy me any ice cream I want."

"Deal," I said. We then headed out of the building and met up with Jessie.

"Hi boys," she said.

"Hi Jessie," we said in unison.

"Whoa, I've heard about your spooky sharing the same brain and talking at the same time thing, but I've never actually seen it in action. It really is scary."

We all laughed at that. "Yeah, we are a little too close sometimes," I said. "Well, we better go find Shar. We don't want to keep her waiting." We walked to the parking lot and were about to go to Shar's car when a thought hit me. "Hold on. I think you should wait here Jess."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because I think Sharpay is still going to be mad about you trying to steal her part."

"First of all, I wasn't trying to steal anybody's part. Second, I don't think she'll still be upset. Auditions were hours ago."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Izzy cut in. That girl can really hold a grudge."

"Yeah," I said. "For example, Susan Chestnut tripped in seventh grade and accidentally spit her gum out in Sharpay's hair. Now, because of Sharpay, Susan's locker is between the first sloor boy's bathroom and the locker of Eddie McCallister, the paranoid guy who only bathes once a month because otherwise he'll seem too delicious to the aliens."

Jessie looked frightened. "Well, maybe you should talk to her first."

"Okay," I said, and went over to talk to Shar. "Hi Shar," I said when I got to her car.

"Hi Ry. How did P.E. go?" she asked.

"Good," I told her. "Can I ask you a favor, sis?"

"Sure Ryan. What do you need?"

"I need to borrow your car."

"Where are you going?"

"Well me, Izzy, and Jessie are going to hang out at the mall."

"Who's Jessie?" Shar asked.

"Oh, you know her," I said. "She's in our drama class."

"What year?"

"She's a freshman," I told her.

"Fresh- wait, you mean that Reynolds bitch?"

"She's not a bitch. She's actually really sweet."

"Sweet! Don't make me gag."

"So can I use the car?"

"Not if she's going to be in it."

"Well if you don't let me use it Shar, a picture of you in your facemask and hair curlers with your teddy bear just might find it's way around the school."

"You wouldn't dare," she said with a glare.

"And why not?" I asked.

"Because if you did, the picture of you kissing your Jessie McCartney poster would be all over the school in a heartbeat," she answered, looking all proud of herself.

"Uh, Shar, most of the school already either knows or suspects that I'm gay, so that really wouldn't bother me."

"Fine," she said, looking angry. "You can use the car."

"And you have to be nice to Jessie," I said.

"But-"

"Teddy bear," I reminded her.

"Okay," she said, looking defeated.

I went back to Izzy and Jessie and told them the good news. "She said yes," I said

"Awesome!" Izzy said. "How'd you get her to say yes?"

"I have my ways," I told him.

"You blackmailed her with something, didn't you?"

"Maybe. Hey, we better get back to the car. Sharpay will get mad if we make her wait ." So we went off to the car and Sharpay drove us home.

For the first few minutes there was a very awkward silence in the car. Then Jessie, being the great person that she is, decided to try to start a conversation. "You were really good at auditions, Sharpay," she said.

"Uh-huh." Obviously Shar didn't really want to talk to Jessie. She was probably afraid that she would involuntarily say something mean.

"You definitely should get the part of Amber." Oh Jessie. She was just so determined.

"Well I better. I was clearly the best one there." At least she was getting a little bit more out of Sharpay.

"You're absolutely right," Jessie said. "No one else should get that part. If Ms. Darbus offers me Amber I'll definitely turn it down, because you deserve that part much more than I do. I would feel honored to even be on the same stage with someone as talented as you." Wow. Jessie was really good at butt kissing.

"You better be careful Jess. If you keep going like this Sharpay's head might get so big it'll explode," I heard Izzy say to her.

"Hey, I heard that!" Shar yelled back to Izzy. "You'd better not get on my nerves, Katsutphrakis, because transporting you is not part of the deal. I could drop you off right here if I wanted to."

"Sorry Sharpay," he said.

"That's more like it. Oh, and Jessie, thanks for what you said before. Maybe I misjudged you. You don't seem all that bad after all."

Jessie looked thrilled after hearing this. "Thanks Shar."

Uh-oh I could see Izzy stiffening up. You see, very few people are aloud to call Sharpay "Shar". It used to be only me, but Izzy recently earned that right as well, seeing as how he was now her honorary brother. When most people called her Shar, Sharpay would freak out on them. When Izzy first tried it, Sharpay poured her whole soda on his head. She expects people to call her by her full name because she sees it as a sign of respect when they do. It was now very likely that Jessie was going to experience Sharpay's wrath firsthand.

"It's Sharpay," she said. You could feel the anger steaming out of her.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sharpay," Jessie said. Good, she caught on to what was happening.

"Well, here we are. Home sweet home. The car's all yours, Ry," Sharpay said. "But you better not damage it at all," she added.

"Don't worry sis, she'll come back in one piece," I assured her. I got in the driver's seat and drove us off to the mall.

"Hey, can you turn the radio on?" Jessie asked. "I like to listen to music while I'm in the car."

"Sure," I said as I flipped it on. The last song had just ended, and now _"Barbie Girl"_ started blasting out at full volume.

"Ugh, somebody kill me now," Izzy groaned. Jessie and I laughed at him. Jessie then started singing along with her best impression of the girl from Aqua, although it was sounding more like Karen Walker from "Will and Grace". The song ended just as we were pulling into the mall parking lot.

"Well, we're here. Everybody out," I said. We all got out of the car and went into the lobby. "So where to first?" I asked.

"Let's go to Abercrombie!" Jessie squealed.

"No," I said immediately. "You are not taking me in there."

"But Ryyyyyan, I really want to go." Yikes, she was pretty good at the puppy dog thing. Of course she wasn't quite as good as-

"Yeah Ry, can we please go?" Oof. There's the _true_ puppy dog look. Stupid Izzy. "Besides, the Stacker probably won't even be there."

"Who's the Stacker?" Jessie asked.

"It's the code name we use for-"

"Fine!" I yelled, causing many people to look at me. "We can go! But I am _not_ staying in there any longer than five minutes"

We walked towards the dreaded and overpriced store, with me silently cursing my friends the whole way. _"Stupid, fashion-obsessed mother-"_

"What the hell do you think you're _doing!_" I asked as Izzy shoved his hand in my pocket.

"I'm looking for something," he told me calmly.

"Well you'd better find it soon, or you're gonna lose that hand," I warned him.

"Calm down Ry," he said as he pulled out my reading glasses. Yes, a little known fact is that I sometimes need to use glasses to read. I've had them since eighth grade, but only really started wearing them last year after Izzy started bugging me about it.

"What are you doing with those?" I asked him.

"Attempting to disguise myself," he replied. He then put my glasses on his face and adjusted his cowboy hat. "There," he said. "Do you think this will work?" he asked.

"It depends, who are you trying to look like?" I asked.

"Your hot new boyfriend with a brain, of course," he told me, as if it should be obvious. I started to give him a questioning look, so he explained himself a bit more. "I was wrong. The Stacker _is_ in there."

"Oh," I said. I then went over and adjusted his clothes a bit. "There. How does he look, Jess?"

_"Cowboy take me away,"_ Jessie sang.

_"Fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue,"_ I sang as I grabbed his arm, put my head on his shoulder, and went into the store.

"Well go ahead and do what you want so we can leave," I said as I looked around the store. Then something hit me. "Hey, there's no windows here. How did you see him?" I asked as I turned to Izzy.

"I didn't," he said guiltily. "I actually just knew he was working here today. I only told you he wasn't so you'd come here. You need to show him you don't care."

I wasn't very thrilled with him about this, but decided to go along with it and follow Jessie to where she was currently drooling over a picture of a male model. There seem to be a lot of girls who drool who drool in Abercrombie & Fitch. As we walked over to her, she closed her mouth and turned to us. Then her eyes flickered over my shoulder and she leaned in and said, "Don't look now, but there's a pretty cute guy staring at you right now, Ryan. Oh! He's starting to come this way! Act casual."

I turned around to see who she was talking about. "I said don't look!" she hissed. I ignored her because right now, it didn't matter what she was saying. The Stacker was walking straight toward us.

The Stacker, better known as Adam Hasaakker, was my ex-boyfriend. Unlike with Izzy, our relationship had not ended very smoothly. I started crushing on him when I first saw him in my acting class last year. He wasn't actually interested in acting, but had taken it as an "easy A". Since we had broken up by the time the year finished, I had to laugh when he barely got a C.

The fact that he was a buff football player who for some reason made my gay-dar go berserk was definitely a factor in my crush. When he kissed me during a rehearsal for class one night, I was thrilled. We dated for about a month and a half. Then, I finally snapped.

Adam had refused to make our relationship public. He didn't want to hurt his reputation. I decided that was okay with me, because I was just so happy to have a boyfriend. Then he started making fun of me in front of his friends. I told him it bugged me, but he just tried to reassure me that it wasn't real by saying, "you know I love you baby" and kissing all nervous thoughts out of my head. Even with him doing that, I still started to notice all the things I didn't like about him. He really was kind of a jerk, and he wasn't exactly a brain trust either. I mean, I'm not so picky that I need a genius or anything, it's just that I want a guy who isn't going to have to ask me to explain almost all of my jokes or who can't figure out how my hair dryer works. So when these things all piled up in my head and I finally started listening to Izzy's advice of "Dump the stupid jerk already," I ended it between us.

Of course, once I dumped him, Adam decided he could come out. He tried desperately to get me back, and I almost caved every time he did. Luckily, I had Izzy to tell me how stupid of an idea that was.

So here I was, draped across my best friend's arm, hoping against hope that his "clever" disguise would fool Adam. I knew exactly why Izzy was doing this too. He knew I didn't want to be around Adam again until I had a boyfriend so he could see that I was definitely over him. And if he happened to get jealous from it too, then that was just an added bonus. Adam was almost to us now. I quickly looked at Izzy to make sure he was well disguised. The cowboy hat on his head hid his signature intentionally messy brown hair and his stunningly green eyes weren't near as noticeable behind my glasses.

"Hi Ryan," he said as he got to our little group.

"Oh, hey Adam," I said, trying to sound like I just now noticed him.

"So who's this?" he asked. Yes! I could totally hear some jealousy (and maybe a little envy) in his voice.

"Oh, this is…"

_"Crap!"_ I forgot to come up with a name for Izzy!

Luckily, he had that all planned out. "I'm Alexander Beaverhousen, although most people just call me Alex. Nice to meet you." Wow. I can't believe that Izzy stole a fake last name from "Will and Grace". Of course, he had heard my rant the day I found out Adam had never seen it. I'm so glad that Izzy pays attention to things better than I do.

"You too," Adam said. There wasn't an ounce of sincerity in his voice I almost burst out laughing when I saw the pained expression on his face as he shook "Alex's" hand. "so are you two…"

"We're not looking for anything," Izzy said. "We're here with our friend."

"Actually, I was wondering if you were dating," Adam said, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Ryan's gay!" Izzy exclaimed with surprisingly convincing surprise.

"Adam was standing there with a very satisfied expression when Izzy chuckled and said, "I'm just kidding, we've been together for two months since we met at Lava Springs over the summer." No wonder Izzy was into acting. He was really good at it. Next he gave me a quick kiss on the lips. "And now we're just so happy." Adam looked really pissed. I was thrilled.

"Hey boys, I'm all done looking," Jessie called from the door. When did she get over there?

"Well I guess we better go. Right honey?" Izzy said.

"Right. See you later, Adam," I said, waving at him as I walked out of the store, still clinging to Izzy like a lovesick schoolgirl.

"So who was that?" Jessie asked once we got away from the store.

"That was Ry's ex-boyfriend, Adam the Stacker," Izzy said as he gave me back my glasses.

"Adam _Hasaakker,"_ I corrected. "The Stacker is just our codename. You know, because he's got those big muscles and it kind of sounds like his name."

"Oh. So where to next?" Jessie asked.

"Maggie Moo's!" Izzy said excitedly. "And you have to pay, Ry."

"What!? You can buy your own ice cream," I told him.

"You promised, remember? You said that if I rode in the Barbiemobile, we could go to Maggie Moo's and you would pay." Oh, right. I forgot that I'd said that.

"Fine, we can go." We quickly went to the ice cream shop and I turned to Izzy. "So what do you want?" I asked him, although it's not like I didn't already know.

"The usual," he told me.

"What do you want Jess?" I asked Jessie.

"You don't have to get me anything. I have my own money."

"I don't care. I want to buy you something. Now tell me what you want before I have to beat it out of you. And don't just pick the cheapest thing in here, because Izzy sure as heck isn't."

"Okay, I guess I'll have whatever Izzy's having," she said, looking a little frightened at my sudden outburst.

"Okay," I turned to order. "We'll have two large chocolate better batters with brownies and rainbow sprinkles, and one small-" Izzy glared at me. "I mean one regular- ow!" He stepped on my foot! "Fine! One _LARGE_ cheesecake ice cream with strawberries mixed in." The girl at the counter quickly started making our orders. I turned to Izzy and said, "What was that about?"

"You're too skinny Ryan," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You don't need to be eating a small anything."

"I'm not _that_ skinny. And anyways, I didn't really want that much ice cream," I told him.

"Oh bull crap. Ice cream is one of your favorite things in the whole world!"

"He's right Ryan. You are pretty skinny," Jessie said. I then saw her brace herself in case I freaked out on her again. Good. I was finally working up the kind of intimidation factor that Sharpay had.

"Fine. I guess I can deal with a large," I said.

At that point, our ice cream was ready. I paid the girl and we walked out. "Wow," Izzy said. "I guess the girl at Maggie Moo's must have agreed with us about your weight, Ry." It was true. While Izzy and Jessie's ice creams were heaping a decent amount over the top of the dish, as was usual at Maggie Moo's, mine had so much in it that it looked like she could have filled two large cups and still have some left over.

"Well it's a good thing this is my favorite," I said as I scooped some into my mouth.

"Sho whardy godu neck?" Izzy mumbled around his ice cream.

"What?" Jessie asked, completely unable to understand him.

"He's wondering where we should go next," I told her.

"Oh. How in the world did you understand that?" she asked me.

"He talks with his mouth full a lot. You eventually get used to it."

"Om shill hea!" Izzy shouted indignantly.

"What?" Jessie asked again.

"He doesn't like us talking about him like he's not here," I explained. "And to answer your question Iz, I say we hit the food court next."

"Whoy?"

"Because I do not want to get ice cream all over me," I told him.

"Yeah, me too," Jessie said. "Let's go." So we went to the food court and finished our ice cream. When we were done, Jessie got up. "I can take your garbage for you, if you want," she offered.

"Thanks Jess," we said at the same time.

"You're welcome," she said as she left and gave us the "You're freaking me out again," look.

As she walked away, Izzy leaned toward me and said, "So where should we g- oh crap."

"What?" I asked as I started to turn to where he was staring. There was no need. My question got answered before I finished turning.

"Well isn't that sweet," a pure evil voice sneered. "The _fags_ are on a date."

"Piss off Chad," Izzy snapped at him.

"Feisty today, aren't we? Well I'm sorry, but I don't swing that way."

I stood up and glared at him. "You know what Chad, I'm _really_ not in the mood to put up with your crap today, so can you please just go away?"

"What if I don't want to?" he asked me. "What if I feel more like getting back at you for nailing me in the head during gym today?"

"Then I'll make you leave," Jessie said as she mysteriously reappeared next to me.

"Yeah, you really scare me, babe," Chad said while patting her on the head.

"Okay, two things," Jessie said with a _really_ angry look on her face. "First, _never_ touch me ever again. Second, don't call me babe if you value your life."

"Oh look boys, we have ourselves a Sharpay wannabe," Chad said to his friends that were with him. They all started snickering.

"So what if I want to be like Sharpay? She is one of the most powerful people in the school. Who wouldn't want to be like her? I'm already just as tough and almost as frightening as she is. Now, please leave me and my friends alone."

"I hate to break it to you, but you don't scare me at all, sweetheart," Chad said as he poked her in the side, clearly trying to irritate her.

It was at that point that I did one of the stupidest things that I have ever done in my entire life. I blinked. When I opened my eyes, Chad was on the floor and Jessie's foot was on his chest. "I told you not to touch me!" Jessie growled at him. "And also, I am not your sweetheart, babe, baby, darling, or any other stupid pet name you can come up with, okay?" she lifted her foot off of him and backed away.

Chad got up and glared at all three of us. "I'll see you later, and don't you dare tell anybody about this."

"We wouldn't dream of it," Izzy said as he tried and failed to hold in a laugh. Chad and his friends stomped off, Chad glaring daggers at Jessie the whole time.

"Now that was just great!" Izzy said, finally letting the full force of his laugh out. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"I've taken self-defense classes since I was nine," she replied. "My dad thought that I should be able to kick a guy's ass in case one of them ever got fresh with me. It comes in handy every once in a while."

"I'll say! Wasn't that the coolest thing you've ever seen, Ry?"

"I didn't see it," I told him. "I blinked."

"You _what!_ How could you miss Chad getting the crap beat out of him?!"

"Well I'm sorry that I'm a human being and have to complete normal bodily functions. I guess I'll just stop blinking, and moving, and eating, and breathing, and-"

"Ryan!" Izzy cut in. "Stop being such a drama queen!"

Jessie laughed. "Don't you mean drama _king_?"

"No," Izzy said, "I definitely mean _queen_."

"Ha ha, why don't you just shut up?" I said as I gave him a dirty look.

"Because It's much more fun to make you angry," Izzy replied.

"That was a rhetorical question, you idiot!"

Jessie laughed. "Why would you want to make Ryan angry anyways, unless you have a death wish of course. Oh! I think I've got it! Sharpay's the scary angry twin, while you're the calm, gentle, and kind one, right Ryan?"

Izzy and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. "You're kidding, right?" Izzy said, still laughing hysterically. "Ry's temper can make Shar's look tame!"

"Hey! I'm not _that_ bad!"

"you at least _as_ bad as her. Do you remember the lunchroom incident last year?"

"What lunchroom incident?" Jessie asked, clearly intrigued.

"Well you know Gabriella Montez, right?"

"Troy Bolton's brainiac ex-girlfriend, right?"

"Yeah, exactly. So what happened was-"

"I can take it from here, Iz," I cut in.

"Awesome! I get to here it from the source!" Somebody was a little too excited.

":Okay, so when Gabriella came to East High last year, Sharpay and I both freaked out a bit. Sharpay was really annoyed, but I didn't care about it at first. Then she was making goo-goo eyes with Troy and making him steal my part, forcing me to hate him. Because of all that, I had to take revenge on her.

So it was the day that they posted the callback sheet. Needless to say, Sharpay and I were shocked and appalled."

"Yeah, Ryan even tried to convince himself that they were being punked," Izzy added.

"Uh, who's telling the story here?" I asked, a bit irritated with him.

"Sorry," he said. "Continue."

"Thank you. So we found out about it and instantly had to start planning against them, of course. At lunch we sat at our usual table and Sharpay tried to come up with some tricky idea. Istopped listening to her because all of a sudden the whole cafeteria went crazy. Everyone started confessing things about themselves and their friends were all freaking out on them. At this point, I saw Gabriella trying to navigate her way through the madness along with her friend Taylor.

Well, being me, I know where Taylor's table is and the path that she takes to get there. I also have more power behind me than people know about, meaning that I can make things go the way I want them to when I feel the need."

"Meaning that there are guys in this school who he can ask for favors because they drool over him about as much as he drools over-"

"Do you want to _walk_ home, Izzy!?"

"No, even though it would be better than riding in the Barbiemobile." I glared at him. "Sorry. Go ahead and finish your story, Ry."

"So as Izzy said when he so rudely interrupted me," I gave him a pointed look. "I can ask favors of certain people. One of those people, Darren Wardell, has actually become a pretty good friend of mine. Because we're friends, he can tell a lot of the time when things upset me, and offered to help me with the Gabriella situation. I asked him what he had in mind, and Darren said that he could try to make her trip or something else equally embarrassing. Sharpay was getting up and trying to get my attention, so I knew she was getting ready to confront Gabriella. This made an evil little idea start to form in my head.

I told Darren to spill some milk in Gabby and Taylor's path just in time for Gabby to slip on it. I also, of course, told him to make it look like it was just an accident. He went off to play out the evil plan and I went down with Sharpay to talk to Gabriella. We were right behind Gabriella and Shar was about to say something to her when… Gabby slipped and spilled her chili cheese fries all over Sharpay , effectively releasing Sharpay's fury on the poor girl."

"I heard about that," Jessie said after I finished. "So that was your doing, not just some coincidental accident?"

"Yep," I replied.

"Wow. Now I know not to make you mad. You'll sick your sister on me."

We all laughed. "That's right, so you better stay on my good side."

When our laughter died down, Izzy asked, "So where to next?"

"It's your turn to choose, Ryan," Jessie added.

"What?" Why was it my turn?

"Izzy and I picked the last two places, so it's only fair if you get to choose."

"Oh. You know, I don't really want to choose. Why don't you guys pick somewhere to go."

"I know the perfect place!" Izzy exclaimed.

"Where?" Jessie asked.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Izzy said very excitedly. This couldn't be good. We walked with him, and it wasn't until we stopped that I realized where we were going. "Here we are!" he declared. We were standing in front of Game Stop.

"Are you into videogames, Izzy?" Jessie asked.

"I do like them, but we're here for Ryan," he told her.

"_You_ like videogames, Ryan?"

"Yeah. Not many people know it, but I do like to play some games."

"Well are we going inside, or are we just going to stand outside and talk?" Izzy asked impatiently.

"Let's go," I said, and we went inside.

As we entered, Izzy pointed at on of the walls. "Hey Ry, look at what they've got over there."

I looked in the direction where he was pointing. "Yeeeeeeee!" I squealed. Yes, I squealed. Sitting on the shelf was Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories. I had been waiting for this game forever, and here it was now, only one copy left and sitting ther just for me. I ran over there and grabbed it, just as some jerk was also grabbing it. "Miiiiiiiinnnnnne!" I exclaimed. I heard the jerk saying the same thing as I did. I looked up so I could see who this jerk was that was trying to take my game away from me. He looked up at the same time, and I was greete by a beautiful pair of eyes that almost made me drop the game. Apparently the "jerk" was actually the most gorgeous being in all of East High. That's right, I was fighting over a videogame with Troy Bolton.

"Oh, hi Troy," I said feebly.

"Hey Ryan," he said. "I'm sorry. I just got excited about the game. You can have it." I opened my mouth to protest. "No Ryan. You are not going to convince me to change my mind. Just buy the game."

"Uh, thanks Troy," I said, still in shock.

"No problem, it's just a game," he said. He must be really good at reading people, because just as I was about to hand it back to him, he said, "But that doesn't mean you can just give it to me. You keep it. I can always find another copy."

"Okay. Well, thanks a lot again Troy," I said. I then bought the game and yanked Izzy and Jessie out of the store.

"So where to next?" Jessie asked.

"Home," said as I started storming off to the exit.

"Why?" Izzy asked as he and Jessie tried to keep up with me.

"Because if we stay in this stupid mall any longer, I'm going to trip on Jessie McCartney's foot, fall in a trash can, and launch out a fork that will stab and kill Stephen Sondheim," I told him.

Jessie laughed. "Wow, you really are a drama queen Ryan she said. I shot her one of the classic Evans family glares. It made her whimper, which made me smile.

"Fine," Izzy said. "Even though I don't think anything _that_ bad will happen, we probably should leave before something else happens." We then went out to the car and I drove them home.

**Author's Note: **So there's the next chapter. I guess it's a late Christmas present to all of you. Again, I'm sorry it took so long. The next one may take a while too, though it shouldn't be quite as long of a wait as it was for this one. The thing is, I have a new project I'm working on. I hope to have that one up soon to. So for right now, please all of you leave me reviews.


	4. Crazy is my Middle Name

-1**Disclaimer:** I do not own High School Musical or Camp Rock. They are the property of Disney. I also do not own Hairspray.

**Author's Note:** I know it's been a while, but here's the next chapter.

**The Life and Times of Ryan Evans**

**Chapter 4: Crazy is My Middle Name**

So after the disaster that was our visit to the mall, the week went on without any more incidents. Spirit week ended, and on Friday, much to my dismay, Adam became the hero who won the homecoming game for East High. Sure, I could look at the positive side, that an openly gay student was now the hero of the school and would hopefully help to lessen the comments thrown at the other gay students in the school. However, I am human, so I don't like seeing my awful ex have great things happen to him. I know it's dumb, but I can't help it.

On Monday, we had our callbacks, which went pretty well, but not as well as I would have liked. For the rest of the week, Izzy, Jessie, Sharpay, and I were stressing out about whether we would get our parts. All four of us were barely able to eat lunch, even Izzy, who almost never says no to food.

Oh, that reminds me. Jessie started sitting with us at lunch now. After the mall thing and her blowing up Sharpay's ego, Sharpay decided that Jessie was an okay girl. We were all becoming pretty good friends with her too.

Okay, so back on topic. So on Friday morning, Darbus posted the cast list for the musical. We had agreed to all look at it together, so when Sharpay and I got to school that morning, Jessie was waiting excitedly for us.

"Hey Jess," I said as we approached her.

"Hi Ryan, hi Sharpay," she said. "Where's Izzy?"

"Ugh, knowing him, we'll be waiting until two before the bell rings," Sharpay complained. "That boy is practically incapable of being on time."

"He's getting better," I said in a feeble attempt to defend my best friend.

Just as Shar was about to contradict me, we spotted Izzy coming our way. "Hey girls," he said. Gabriella and Troy were walking right behind him.

"Hey guys," Gabriella said. "Izakiyah told us you were all checking the list together. Can we come with you?"

"Sure, you can come with us, Troy" Shar said.

"Uh, Shar, it wasn't Troy who asked," I whispered to her.

"Shut up," she hissed at me.

"Fine," I said as everyone caught up and went inside. Everyone except for Izzy, who was trailing behind and looking slightly upset. "What's up?" I asked him. He gave me one of those "Did you really just ask me that?" looks. Oh yeah. I thought about it when she said it. Izzy hates it when people call him by his full name. "Well are you going to tell her that it bugs you?" I asked him.

"No," he said. "I can deal with it." I made a mental note to myself to say something to her, since I knew he would never do it himself.

"Well," I said, "we better get in there before-"

"Boys!!" Sharpay shrieked.

"How is it that she can make her scream pierce into our skulls even through the walls?" Izzy asked.

"I don't know, but let's go before she does it again." We hurried inside, just as Shar was taking a giant breath in preparation for another scream. Jessie and Troy were bracing themselves, while Gabriella was blissfully oblivious.

"It's about time!" she snapped at us as we got to the group. "We've been waiting for you forever." Behind her, Troy was trying and failing to stifle a laugh. "What are you laughing at, Bolton?" she said as she swung around to him.

"Nothing, Miss Evans," he replied. Dang. No wonder my parents had kept Fulton around for so long. He really got his employees trained well.

"That's what I thought," Sharpay said. She seemed very proud of her scariness, even if it wasn't the real reason for his obedience. "So let's look at the list, shall we?" We all turned and looked at the list. It read as follows:

**Tracy Turnblad:**** Jessica Reynolds**

**Link Larkin:**** Ryan Evans**

**Seaweed Stubbs:**** Izzy Katsutphrakis**

**Penny Pinkleton:**** Gabriella Montez**

**Amber Von Tussel:**** Sharpay Evans**

**Velma Von Tussel: ****Karen Moon**

**Corny Collins:**** Troy Bolton**

"**Motormouth" Maybelle:**** Marissa Clayborne**

**Edna Turnblad:**** Martha Cox**

**Wilbur Turnblad:**** Darren Wardell**

There were more names after that, but we didn't really care about them. "I got the lead!" Jessie exclaimed. "Oh, I'm sorry you didn't get it, Gabriella."

"It's okay, at least I got one of the main parts," Gabby said.

"Yeah, and what's better than being _my _girlfriend?" Izzy asked her. We all laughed at that. It was a pretty exciting thing, since we all got the parts that we wanted, except for Gabriella, but she was genuinely happy with Darbus' choice.

"Great job, Ryan! You got your part!" I heard someone say behind me. I turned around and saw Troy grinning at me.

"You too," I said, struggling feebly to keep his smile from melting my brain.

"Well, there wasn't any competition for me," he said. "Although, I guess there really wasn't any competition for you either." I gave him a look, since there were lots of guys who auditioned for Link. "What I mean," he corrected himself," is that the other guys didn't stand a chance. I mean, how could they? You have the voice of an ang- uh, of an amazingly talented Broadway superstar."

Was it just me, or did Gabriella flash him a look just now? She probably did. Sure, they broke up toward the end of the summer and both claim to be over each other, but I'm not sure how much I believe that. I know that if I had Troy Bolton as my boyfriend, I would not give him up that easily.

"Troy, can I talk to you for a minute?" Gabriella said as she walked a little ways away from the group. I knew it. She was going to beg for him back.

"Uh, I'll be right back, Ryan," Troy told me as he went to talk to her.

"Ryan," Izzy said from behind me.

"What?"

"What's going on with you and Troy?" he asked.

"Nothing," I told him.

"Well have you played that game you got the other day yet?"

"No. I keep getting ready to play, but then I get hit with this overwhelming guilt because I stole it away from Troy."

"Good," Izzy said. I gave him a questioning look. What did he mean by saying that it was good that I felt miserably guilty? He caught my look and explained himself. "What I mean is that since you haven't played yet, you could ask Troy to play with you."

He had a point. That was a pretty good plan. There was just one little problem with it. "Okay, I admit that that sounds really good, but it's too sneaky and deceptive. And don't forget about Gabriella. She's over there right now trying to win Troy back."

"No she isn't," he said.

"Well there's no way to know for sure, but I'm pretty sure that's what she's doing."

"No, I mean she's done talking and you need to _smile_," he said with a wink. Seeya later Ry." He walked off just as Troy was approaching me.

"Hey Ryan," Troy said. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," I said. "So what was that about? Was she asking you back or something?"

"Who, Gabby? No. She just wanted to talk to me about something."

"Oh, okay," I said. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," I said. It was at that point that I went against my better judgment and took Izzy's advice. "So Troy," I started off.

"What?" he asked.

"Well, did you get your hands on a copy of that game yet?" I asked.

"No. You're not going to offer me the game, are you? Because I already told you I won't take it."

"I know. I was just going to ask you if you would want to come to my house some time and we could play it together. I haven't even started it yet."

"Really?" Troy asked.

"Yeah, I thought it would be fun to play together. We could take turns, since it's a single player game."

"No, that's not what I mean," he said. "I meant that I couldn't believe that you haven't played it yet. I would have taken about thirty seconds after getting home to run to my Playstation and turn the game on."

"Well, I didn't have a very good day the day I bought it," I told him.

"Really, what happened?" Okay, this was kind of weird. Why was Troy Bolton so concerned about me? Well, other than that, I should probably be worrying about giving him an acceptable answer.

"I ran into my ex." Not the entire story, but it should work.

"But I thought you and Izzy are friends," he said.

"We are. It wasn't Izzy, it was Adam."

"Adam Hasaakker?" I nodded. "I didn't know you went out with him."

"Yep, I would be the reason he came out."

"Huh,"

"Huh what?" I asked him.

"Well, it's just that he doesn't seem like your type," Troy said. How would _he_ know what is and isn't my type? Troy must have guessed what I was thinking, because he then said, "Well what I mean is that he can be pretty stupid, and no offense, but he's kind of a jerk."

I laughed. "Yeah, those are the reasons I dumped him." His face filled with disbelief. "Yes, _I_ dumped _him_. He's been trying to win me back ever since. So anyways, back to our previous topic. Would you want to come and play the game with me?"

"Yes. Absolutely!" I couldn't help but grin at that. "So when should we do it?" Troy asked.

"I don't know. When would be good for you?"

He stood and thought about it for a few seconds. "How about tonight after the read through?"

"Sure. That would be great. You could even have dinner with us."

"Cool. Oh, one problem though. My mom doesn't like me driving super late. Do you think I could stay at your house?"

Troy Bolton sleeping at my house? How could I possibly say no? "Of course you can!" Oops. I think I sounded a bit too excited.

"That's great. But there's another thing. Do you think you could ride with me to my house so I can get my stuff and you can guide me to your house?"

Wow. Either I really was being punked now, or I just randomly got a bucket of luck dumped on me. "I think that should be fine."

"That's good," Troy said. Then the warning bell rang. "I guess we had better get to class," he said. We went off to class then.

School really wasn't eventful that day. Just a few interesting things happened. Kelsi was being weird in all of my classes and at lunch. She just had a weird look on her face and didn't make eye contact with anybody. The other interesting thing was that it was the last day of basketball in gym class. On Wednesday and Thursday we had played actual games, but on Friday Coach Bolton let us just do whatever as long as it was basketball related. This was good because I was still hopeless and it gave me another private tutoring session with Troy. He didn't hug me anymore, but if I looked helpless enough, Troy would still come and adjust me. Needless, to say, I messed up a little more often than I really had to.

After class, I rushed out of the locker room like always, but waited for Troy outside the door. Unfortunately, another basketball player left the locker room first. "That's cute that you're waiting for me, Evans, but like I've already told you I'm not interested."

"Go away Chad."

"I don't think I really want to," he said, sounding all cocky.

"Well I want you to, and I'm sure that Jessie would be willing to come here to make it happen," I threatened.

That shut him right up. "Whatever. Later, fairy."

Troy came out of the locker room just in time to see Chad leaving. "Was he giving you trouble?" he asked me.

"No," I lied.

"You don't have to lie, Ryan. I know what he's like."

"You do? Well, that's how he is, so I guess you can't do anything about it."

"Don't brush it off like that, Ryan," he scolded me. "It's not okay." Wow. I'm surprised that Troy would be so harsh about his own best friend's behavior. "I've been bugging him about it for a while, but he won't listen to me. That's why we're not as good of friends anymore. It's really kind of sad that our friendship that's lasted so long is falling apart over something so stupid."

"Excuse me!?" That was not a stupid issue!

"No, Ryan, that's not what I meant. I meant that it's stupid that he has to be like that. It makes me really mad that he can't just accept people who are different."

_"Why must you be straight!"_ I yelled at him in my head.

"Anyways, why were you waiting here?" Troy asked.

"Umm…" Why was I there again? "Oh! I figured we could go to the read through together, since your locker is right across from mine."

"Cool. That sounds like a great idea. Let's go." So we went to our lockers, got our stuff, and went to the auditorium.

As we got in there, I saw that everyone was looking a little uneasy. Izzy was there, so I figured I'd ask him where the scripts were. "Iz!" I called as Troy and I walked up to him.

"What?"

"Where are the scripts at?"

"We don't know. Darbus said she had an important announcement, but she was waiting for you two to show up, so she should be up any minute now. Speak of the devil."

She was walking up to the center of the apron. "Thank you all for coming here, but I have some news that you may not like. We are not going to be performing _Hairspray_ as the fall musicale. Instead, we will be doing an original piece by our very own Kelsi Nielson once again. However, you need not worry about auditioning again. I will choose the parts for each of you based on what I already know and on your answers to the questionnaire that Kelsi is passing out right now."

Kelsi was just getting to Izzy, Troy, and me when Ms. Darbus said this. She gave me a little smile and then scurried over to Darbus. Apparently, she wasn't done with being weird yet.

I looked at the sheet of paper in front of me. "What the heck is this about?" I heard Izzy say as he looked at it. He had a point. The questions were a little weird. They included the following:

**-What is your favorite genre of music?**

**-Do you play an instrument? If yes, please state which one.**

**-What are your feelings toward homosexuality?**

**-Do you feel that popularity is a very important thing?**

And it went on like that through the rest of the page and on the other side. When everyone was finished, Darbus collected our papers and went back up on the stage. "Thank you all for your participation. The new cast list will be up on Monday morning on the bulletin board. We will have a read through Monday afternoon. You are all excused for now."

As everyone started leaving, Troy walked up to me. "So are you ready to go?" he asked me.

"Yeah. So are we just going straight to my house?"

"Nooo. We're going to my house, remember?"

"Oh. Well I figured that since you're not staying at my house anymore you wouldn't need to go to your house."

"Why am I not staying at your house?" He sounded surprised and offended.

"Well since it's not as late, I thought you wouldn't want to stay as long. I mean, why waste a perfectly good Friday night with some gay guy?"

"Ryan, don't say stuff like that. You're not _some gay guy_. I think you're really cool, and I still want to stay, unless you don't want me to."

Aaaaw. Even though I didn't love seeing it, Troy looked really cute when he was upset. "Of course I want you to still stay over," I told him.

"Great! Then let's go to my house."

"Okay." I followed him out to his truck.

When we got to the truck I went to open the door, but Troy stopped me. "Let me get that."

"Why, is it locked?" I asked.

"No. It's just difficult." He started tugging on the handle with his foot pushing against the truck to the side of the door. "It's" GRUNT. "Old," GRUNT. "So it doesn't," GRUNT. "Open," GRUNT. "Easily." He grunted two more times and then let go.

"Why don't you let me try?" I asked.

He looked me up and down and said, "I don't think you'll be able to do it Ryan."

"You know, I'm not as weak and pathetic as people think I am," I said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Okay. You can give it a try." He looked skeptical.

"Thank you." I walked up to the door and performed my little door-opening trick. I hit the top of the door with my left fist, the right side with my right elbow, and then hit the middle with my hip.

"Uh, Ryan, what are you doing?" Troy asked. I turned around and pulled on the handle. The door opened easily. "How did you do that?' he asked in amazement.

"Izzy's old Volvo has issues too, so I've learned how to deal with old cars," I told him.

"Oh. Wait, Izzy doesn't drive."

"He has his permit and a car, but can't get his license for another two months.

"Oh. Well that makes more sense." Troy went around to the driver's side of the truck, we both got in, he started it up, and…

_"Oh no."_ I quickly looked around. _"Please say he has it too."_ That's when I found it. I grabbed at the air freshener hanging from the mirror and looked at it. It was "apple" scented. Yeah right. What kind of apples were these people smelling?

"I'm sorry about the smell. The truck smelled old and weird, so I got an air freshener. It's supposed to smell like apples, but it smells more like…"

"Pot?" I filled in.

"Exactly."

"Don't worry. Izzy has the same one in his car."

"That's funny. Wait, why do you know what pot smells like?" he asked me.

"Remember Troy, I used to date one of the East High football players. Adam kept trying to get me to try it. Yet another factor in my dumping him. Why do _you_ know what it smells like?"

"Lacy Lolly. I did a project with her last year and she was smoking right in front of me like it didn't matter," he said. "But I've never done it," he added.

I laughed. "I believe you."

"That's good. Oh, here we are," he said as he pulled the truck into the driveway of a house. His house looked nice on the outside. From the condition of the lawn, I guessed that it was just as nice, if not nicer, on the inside. "So so you want to come in?" Troy asked me.

"I think I'll just wait in here," I told him.

"That wasn't really a question Ryan. Come inside. You can just stay in the kitchen if you want, but at least come inside.

"Fine. I guess I can just wait for you in the kitchen."

"Great! Okay, let's go." I followed him into the house and he had me wait in the kitchen for him. "I'll be down in a few minutes," he said, and ran upstairs.

I waited there for a few minutes when a woman walked into the kitchen. "Oh! Who are you?" she asked when she saw me.

"I'm Ryan Evans. I go to school with Troy."

"So _you're_ Ryan," she said. What was that supposed to mean? I just nodded. "Hi Ryan, I'm Lucille, Troy's mother. I've heard a bit about you from Troy."

"Really? Like what?"

"Well…"

Just as she was about to speak, Troy ran down the stairs from his room with his stuff. "Mom! What are you doing!?"

"I was just talking to Ryan, sweetie."

"No, I mean what are you doing _here?_ Why aren't you at work?"

"I got off early today."

"Oh. Well, Ryan and I had better get going."

"Okay," she said. "Have fun." She turned and winked at me. Was something going on that I wasn't aware of?

"We will." Troy said as he gathered up his stuff and yanked me by the arm out of the room.

"What was that about?" I asked him as we got back in his truck and he headed off for my house.

"Nothing. My mom's just kind of weird and embarrassing." I got the feeling that he wasn't giving me the whole story. "So where am I headed?" he asked.

"Turn left on the next block, and then take a right when you get to Tattenham."

"Okay. So what did she say to you?"

"Your mother?" He nodded. "Not much. She just said that she had heard a little about me from you."

"Oh. Yeah, I've talked about you a little bit in the past. You know, when you have so many classes with a person, you're bound to talk about them every now and then. So what do I do now?" he had just made the second turn.

"Go down five blocks and then turn left. It's the fourth house on the right."

"Okay." He followed my directions in silence. As we pulled up to the house, he said, "You didn't even need to tell me which house it was. Your sister's car pretty much pretty much does that by itself."

I laughed. "Yeah, that's true. You're lucky. The car being in the driveway means she's going somewhere soon. You won't have to deal with her, for a little while at least."

"That's great news. She gets a little handsy with me sometimes."

"I know. She tells me all about it afterwards."

Troy laughed. "That's really funny. I feel sorry for you. So where should I park?"

"You can just pull up next to Shar's car on the right."

"Okay," He parked and opened his door. "You shouldn't have any trouble getting out," he told me. He was right. It opened without any trouble at all.

We walked to the door and I opened it. "You can just put your stuff at the foot of the stairs," I told him.

Sharpay came into the room then. "Ryan, I'm stressed about the show, so I'm going to Taco Bell. I need a big, greasy, fatty… Troy!" Troy was standing next to me, trying not to laugh at the fact that Sharpay had admitted to needing the fatty nastiness that is Taco Bell. Sharpay shot me a "You're going to die!" look and ran out the door.

Troy and I burst out laughing as her car left the driveway. "That was awesome!" Troy said. "I've never seen Sharpay so flustered!"

"It's always fun when things like that happen," I said.

"Definitely," Troy agreed.

"So do you want to go to my room now?" I asked him.

"What ?!" He looked fairly freaked out.

"To play the game," I explained.

"Oh." Troy looked much more relieved after I said that.

"What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing."

"Liar."

"Why don't we just play the game?"

"Okay." He was still hiding something. We went up to my room and went inside.

"Whoa!" Troy exclaimed.

"What?"

"That is a really impressive closet," he said as he stared at my walk-in closet. "And how many hats do you _have?_" He ran in and started looking at everything.

"Thirty two."

"Thirty two what?"

"I have thirty two hats," I told him as I started setting up the game.

"Wow. I knew you had a lot, but it didn't seem like that many."

"Well it's not like you count how many I wear."

"Actually…"

"You count how many hats I wear?"

"It's a fun little game that Gabby and I play to keep ourselves entertained during class," he told me.

"You must get really bored," I said as I finished setting up.

"You have no idea. No way, you have a rainbow hat?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?" I asked as I turned back toward him.

"Not at all. How do I look?" He was wearing the hat.

"Pretty good. Now why don't you just come out of the closet, Troy. The game is ready."

He put the hat back and walked out of the closet, closing the door behind him, "Ha ha. Don't think I didn't notice that pun." he said.

"You're a sharp one Bolton. You can have the first turn," I told him.

"Really? Thanks! Where do I sit?"

"Your choices are the bed or the floor. Take your pick," I said as I sat on my queen size bed.

Troy grabbed the controller and laid down on his stomach to my right on the bed. "This looks like the comfiest spot." He started a new file on normal mode and I watched.

When "The Unknown" started talking, Troy and I said, "He sounds weird," at the same time. We both laughed at that. The character really did have a weird voice for him.

"Ugh!" Troy exclaimed when Sora spoke.

"Eeew," was my reaction.

"Why the crap does Sora have the voice from the second game?" Troy asked, more to himself than to me.

"Since when is why the crap an expression, Troy?" I teased him.

"Since I decided it was, Ryan."

"Ooo, attitude. I think the reason behind that would be that the actor's voice has changed and they thought it would be weirder if they got some new kid to play Sora."

"Yeah, you're probably right, but that doesn't make it any less weird. So when do you want to switch?"

"How about after every world we switch," I said.

"Sounds good to me."

We played for a while, and about half way through my first turn, Troy noticed that I was squirming around and rubbing my back. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. My back just gets a little sore when I sit with nothing supporting it."

"Why do you think I'm lying on my stomach?"

"Well that's what I usually do, but with you here…"

"What? You thought it would be too awkward?" I nodded. Troy sighed. "Ryan, just come down here." I took his advice and continued playing.

After a couple of minutes, Troy started moving. I figured he was going to the bathroom, but then suddenly he was straddling me and rubbing my back. "Uh, Troy, what the crap are you doing?" I asked him.

"I thought what the crap wasn't an expression," he said.

"But then you decided it was, so _what the crap_ are you doing on my back!?!"

"You said your back hurt, so I figured I'd rub it for you."

"Well could you stop please?"

"I thought you didn't mind guys grabbing you," he said, using my somewhat creepy words from the other day against me.

"You're a pervert," I plainly stated.

"Maybe." He continued rubbing my back. I have to admit, it felt pretty good.

"And you don't have any problems with personal space invasions either, do you?"

"Are you kidding? I hate it when people invade my space," he said.

"But it's fine when you invade other people's space?"

"I only do that if I like them."

"What?"

"I mean like when I'm comfortable with them in a friendly way."

"Of course. So how much longer are you going to be doing that?"

"Just a few more minutes," He told me.

Two more minutes later, I heard Sharpay get home. She walked right up the stairs and opened the door to my room. She didn't bother to knock, since this was Sharpay, after all. "Ryan, can I talk to you for a- what the _hell?!_" I admit that it did look a bit strange. She came in and the first thing she saw was me in my stomach playing the game with Troy straddling me and rubbing my back.

"What did you need Shar?" I asked her casually.

"Uh… I want to talk to you alone for a minute."

"Okay. I'll be right back, Troy."

"Okay, see you in a few minutes," Troy said as he got off of me.

I walked out of my room with Sharpay and closed the door. She pulled me down the hall into her room and closed the door. "Is Troy Bolton gay?" she asked urgently.

"Why would you think that?" I asked her.

"I don't know, maybe because he was straddling my gay brother while giving him a massage."

"He was just being nice because my back hurt. So is that all you wanted to talk about?" I asked her.

"No. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about. Not warning me that Troy was coming, but I'm pretty much over that now. So why is he here?"

"We both wanted the same game, but he let me buy it, so we're playing it together."

"Okay. So what time is he leaving?" Shar asked.

"I don't know, some time tomorrow, I guess."

"You mean he's sleeping _here?!_"

"Well, I don't know how much actual sleeping we'll be doing."

"Wait, I thought you just said he wasn't gay."

"Eeeeeew! He's not, and you're a pervert! I meant we'll probably be playing all night!"

"Whatever. Have fun with your game, little bro."

"I will." I left and went back to my room, just in time to see Troy beating Jafar in the game. "You jerk! You stole the rest of my turn!"

"You left, so I kept playing. Anyways, there's still a little bit left to Agrabah," he told me.

"Woo-hoo, I get to go up a ladder and save! You know what, why don't you just finish it up and go on to your turn, but _I_ get to fight Hades."

"That's perfectly fine with me. Hades is hard." So he kept playing, and after a while I heard someone come in the house.

"Ducky, I'm home! Come give your mommykins a kiss," my mom called from the entrance.

"Ducky?" Troy smirked at me.

"She's called me that since I was little, okay? So just shut up. I'll be right back."

I ran down the stairs and gave my mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Hi mom."

"Ducky! How was your day?"

"Good, although the musical got changed. But we don't have to audition again and Kelsi wrote the new one, so it should be good."

"That's good to hear. And what's this here?" she asked, indicating Troy's bags.

"Oh, that's Troy's stuff. He's staying here tonight, remember?" I forgot to mention, Troy and I both called our parents and asked for permission to have the sleepover. "I just didn't know where you wanted to put him."

"He's welcome to stay in your room. You know I don't care."

"No mom, Troy's just a friend," I told her.

"Okay Ducky. Whatever you say. Well the guest room is still being fixed up, so the only available one is the room connected to your sister's." Yeah, as shocking as it seems, we only have two spare bedrooms. My parents don't like having family visit very much, so they made it so that we only had two spare bedrooms. They also are constantly having at least one of the rooms renovated, making it so that we can have even less guests.

"I'll just ask him what he wants. Troy! Can you come down here please?"

"What do you need?" he asked when he came down.

"You have two choices for where you can sleep. Option one is that you can sleep in my room."

"What's option two?" I figured he wouldn't go for that, but let's see what he thinks of option two.

"Option two is that you can sleep in the guest room that has a door with no lock on it that connects it to Sharpay's room, so the choice is-"

"Your room," he said quickly.

"Perfect! Ducky, can you please take Troy's things up for him? I'll start working on dinner."

"You know you really don't have to take it," Troy said.

"You're a guest, Troy. It doesn't bother me at all." I picked up his bags and took them to my room, setting them at the foot of the bed. Troy and I then went back to our game. I looked at the screen. "What killed you?" I asked Troy. Sora was floating with his heart out of his chest.

He had a guilty look on his face. "Hades," he admitted.

"That's what you get for trying to steal my turn." I picked up the controller. After a bit of deck modification, I fought Hades and beat him on the first try.

"Show off." Troy muttered. I simply smiled and kept on playing. I had just beat the boss in the next world and was finishing the story when my mom called to us.

"Boys, you need to come down in the next five minutes for dinner! Sharpay, you too!"

I saved the game and we headed downstairs. "Mmm, it smells really good Mrs. Evans. What's for dinner?"

"Meat loaf. It's one of Ducky's favorites and it usually goes over pretty well with guests."

Well I like meat loaf," Troy said, "And I'm sure that whatever Ducky likes, I'll like too." He smirked at me.

"I'm here!" Shar announced when she got in the room.

"Okay, let's all sit down," We all sat down and began to eat.

"This is really good Mrs. Evans," Troy said when he finished.

"Thank you Troy. Would you like more?" she asked.

"No thank you."

"May we be excused?" I asked.

"Yes. Just put your plates in the dishwasher please."

I took our plates and put them in the dishwasher. My dad walked in the house while I was doing that. When I came back in the dining room, I heard him talking to Troy.

"I haven't seen you since this summer Troy. What are you doing here?"

"He's here with Ryan and he's staying tonight," my mom told him.

"Oh. So how long have you two been…" he trailed off.

"How long have we been what?" Troy asked.

"Hi dad!" I walked in a little more so that I was noticed.

"Hey son." My dad walked over and adjusted my hat. "That's better," he said. I could always count on my hats to distract my father.

"So do you want to go back to the game?" I asked, turning to Troy.

"Sure," Troy said.

"Have fun you two," my mom said as we went upstairs.

"But not too much," dad said with a wink.

Ugh. Why couldn't they stop being so suggestive? I mean really, was it that hard to believe that I had a guy staying overnight and we weren't doing anything? I guess they thought it was.

Troy and I played the game for a while until we got the new set of world cards. Then we both agreed to give it a break for a while.

"So what do you want to do now?" Troy asked. "Other than the things that your parents think we're doing," he added with a smirk.

"So you caught on to that?" I asked.

"Yeah. They were pretty blunt about it."

"They tend to be like that. So what do you want to do?" I asked him again.

"Um, what about a movie?"

"Sounds good. Would you mind if I take a shower first?" I asked. "I also want to change into something that's more comfortable than my school clothes."

"Sure, that's fine. I was wanting to change too."

"Okay. I'll be out in a few minutes." I went in my bathroom and took a quick shower. When I got out, it felt do much better to be clean _"Oh crap!"_ I just realized that I threw my clothes in the laundry chute to go down to the basement, but I forgot to get some clean clothes to change into because I was trying so hard to not take too long. _"Okay Ryan, don't freak out. You're just going to go in there in your towel, get some clothes really fast, and then get out."_ I told myself. I wrapped my towel around my waist and went to the door.

"When I opened the door, I was greeted by a very interesting sight. My ipod was on and _"I'm Not Your Girl"_ by Lalaine was playing very loudly out of the speakers. As if this wasn't strange enough, Troy was on my bed, shirtless, dancing to the song with his shirt off. Did I mention that he wasn't wearing a shirt? Yes, my eyes were fixed on his gorgeous chest and my mouth had fallen open. A few seconds after the song ended, he noticed that I was standing there and stopped moving.

His reaction was very similar to mine. Troy's mouth also fell open and he was staring, although I was sure it was just because he was embarrassed by the situation I found him in.

"Uh… Hi Ryan," he said as he got off he bed. "Um, where are your clothes?"

"I, uh, oh! I forgot to get clean ones to change into. Why are you…?" I just waved my hand around a bit, indicating that I was asking about the whole situation.

"Well, I didn't want to be alone in the quiet, and I saw your ipod there. I figured you wouldn't mind if I turned it on. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all. But what about everything else?"

"Um, so I was changing, changing, and then a song that I really like started playing and I got distracted.

"What song" I asked as I went to the closet.

"Uh…" He was clearly debating whether he should tell me. "It was _"All My Best Friends Are Metalheads"_ by Less Than Jake," he lied. At least he picked a song I actually had.

"Are you sure it wasn't _"I'm Not Your Girl"_ by Lalaine?" I turned and smirked at him.

"So you saw that," he said.

"Yep. But don't worry about it. I'll get my stuff, you can finish changing, and then we'll find a movie to watch.

"Okay," Troy said.

I grabbed my New York t-shirt and a pair green of shorts and turned around to go back to the bathroom. "Holy crap! What are you _doing_ Troy!?" Just as I turned, he had taken off his pants and was now wearing nothing but his boxers.

"You told me to change," he said as he walked over to his bags.

"So you strip right in front of me!?"

"It's not like it bothers you," he said. Sure it did, just not in the way that he was that he was thinking.

"Uh, I'm going to go get dressed now." I sped over to the bathroom. I got dressed and was about to leave when I stopped. I decided to brace myself for whatever strange thing might happen when I reentered my room. I opened the door and the music was off and Troy was sitting quietly, looking like a Greek statue, aside from the fact that he wasn't made of stone and was wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of black shorts.

"So are you all ready?" he asked, turning to look at me. "Whoa," he said when he looked at me.

"What?" I looked over my outfit to make sure nothing weird was going on with it.

"It's nothing. Those shorts are just kind of… short."

"Oh they're not that bad. And it's not like you're exactly one to talk, Mr. Bolton."

He looked down at himself and shrugged. "Is everything covered?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Then I guess we're both okay, aren't we?"

"I guess we are. So what movie should we watch?" I asked him.

"What are the choices?" he asked.

I smiled. "Follow me." We left my room and went all the way down to the basement. We walked into the T.V room, where Sharpay was curled up on the couch eating a bag of rice cakes. Why she chooses to eat those things during a movie, instead of eating real food, I do not know.

"Dang!" Troy said when he saw our television that took up almost the whole wall. "How big is that thing?"

"Too big," I told him.

"Shush!" Sharpay said. "He's about to say the line!" She was watching _The Notebook_.

"Sorry Shar. We're just getting a movie to watch."

"Whatever." She put the movie on pause. "Just be quick about it, okay? You don't need to take for- auughllll!"

Shar was currently drooling and ogling over Troy from the couch. Ha, she thought that he was showing a lot of his body _now_. She should have been in my room five minutes ago.

"Here we go. Troy Bolton, welcome to the movie cabinet," I said as I opened it.

Troy's eyes opened really wide. "That is a lot of movies," he said in amazement.

Shar seemed to have realized that this would cut down on her movie time, because she stopped drooling and said, "Hurry up and pick one boys."

Troy looked at all of the movies, trying to make a decision. "You know what, Troy, why don't you pick a movie and I'll meet you in the kitchen," I told him. "Just don't pick a horror movie please."

"So either _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ or _The Descent_, right?"

"You're not as funny as you think you are, Troy," I told him as I went upstairs.

"Yes I am," he said back.

I laughed. "Whatever Bolton."

When I got up to the first floor to the first floor, I started in the process of putting together some proper movie goodies. This of course included a batch of delicious chocolate chip cookies. I quickly made the dough and put it on some cookie sheets. I put them in the oven and turned around to find Troy standing about six inches away from me.

"What are you doing? He asked.

"Making some munchies for the movie."

"What kind of munchies require baking?"

"The cookie kind, of course. Obviously you don't do your movie nights right."

"I guess not. So how long until they're done?" Troy asked.

"About thirty minutes. I'll make the popcorn now and we can watch the movie until they are ready. That reminds me, what movie did you pick?"

"_The Hills Have Eyes_, of course," he said with a smug little look.

"Please tell me you're kidding."

"I am." He held out his real choice. Or at least I thought he had.

"_Mamma Mia_? Come on Troy, seriously, what movie do you want to watch?"

"This one." He actually looked serious.

"Really?"

"What's wrong with it?" he asked.

"Nothing. I love it. I just thought that you'd pick something a little more…" I searched for the right word.

"Straight?" Troy suggested.

"I was going to say manly."

"Well in my opinion, it takes a real man to watch a chick flick, especially a musical one."

"But there's nobody here but me, so you don't have to prove your manliness to anyone."

Troy got closer to me and whispered, "But what if I want _you_ to think I'm a real man?"

"What?" I started blushing like crazy.

Troy laughed and backed away. "I'm just kidding. I actually enjoy chick flicks every once in a while. I also like musicals, even though people think I wouldn't. Also, who doesn't like ABBA?"

"You do have a point. Okay. If you really want, we'll watch _Mamma Mia_." I got two bags of popcorn and put them in the microwaves. That's right, we have two microwaves. My older sister and I both have hefty appetites and don't like waiting before we eat. I of course do not mean Sharpay. I mean my _real_ older sister, Elizabeth Evans. Whenever she comes to visit, one microwave is not enough. That was why my parents got a second one back when she still lived with us.

I went and grabbed a giant bowl out of one of the cupboards. "Do you really need that big of a bowl?" Troy asked.

"Yes, I do," I told him. "To bags is a lot of popcorn."

"But why not two smaller bowls?"

"Because Troy, one big bowl is easier."

"I guess that's true." The popcorn finished at this point and I emptied the bags into the bowl. I then went over to the fridge and opened it.

"Okay Troy, pick something to drink and we'll head upstairs and watch the movie." I had already grabbed an orange soda for myself. Troy looked in the fridge and also picked an orange soda. "Copycat," I teased him.

"I like orange, is that a problem?" he asked.

"Not at all. Let's go watch the movie." I grabbed the popcorn and we went upstairs to my room. I set up the movie and we started watching, munching away at the popcorn. After a while, I heard the timer go off on the oven. I jumped off the bed to go downstairs.

"Do you want me to pause the movie for you?" Troy asked.

"No. I've seen it before. You just keep watching. I'll be back in a few minutes." I went downstairs and pulled the cookies out of the oven. "Shar, I just finished a batch of chocolate chips!" I yelled.

It took about five seconds for her to fly up the stairs and into the kitchen. "Just one please," she told me.

I got a small plate out for her. "Wait. Where are mom and dad?" I asked.

"They went to a party and said they'll be back late tonight."

I got out another small plate and put Shar's cookie on one and two for mom and dad on the other. As I put some plastic wrap over their cookies I asked, "Why didn't they tell me they were leaving?"

"They didn't want to disturb you and Troy," she said with a smile.

"Oh come on. You know that we're just friends, right?"

"Well maybe. But if you wanted if you wanted to be just friends with him you wouldn't be making him cookies, would you?"

"I make Izzy cookies."

"Yeah, but he's your ex-boyfriend."

"We only dated for a week, Shar."

"But you still dated. Have you ever made cookies for a guy you didn't like?"

"Umm…" She was right. "Okay! So I like Troy Bolton," I said in a quiet voice so Troy wouldn't overhear us. "It doesn't mean that anything is going on between us. He's straight, remember?"

"Sure. I'll let you get back to your 'non-date' now. See you later little bro."

"Five minutes!" I yelled at her as she went back downstairs. Seriously, was she ever going to let me forget that? Probably not. Anything that Shar could get to make her feel like she had more power over me, of course she was going to use it, even if it was just the five minutes between our births.

I put the remaining cookies on a large plate and went back up to my room and went in. "I have returned," I announced. "And I have gifts."

"Those smell really good," Troy said.

"Thank you. So what do you think of the movie so far?" I asked him.

"I really like it."

"That's good." I moved next to him on the bed and set the cookies between us. Troy picked up one of the cookies and took a bite. "This is the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted!" he exclaimed. "You made these by yourself?"

I smiled. "Yes Troy. I just have really good baking skills."

"These are even better than Zeke's," Troy added.

"That's because the only things Zack is really good at are snicker doodles and crème Brule."

"Those are the best things he makes," Troy agreed. We were both pretty quiet for the rest of the movie. "That was really good," Troy said as I took the movie out and put it back in the case. I nodded. "Oh, Ryan, uh, what exactly is the sleeping situation going on tonight?" Troy asked.

"Oh." I forgot to get that figured out." Um, I guess you can sleep in the bed and I'll sleep on the floor."

"No you won't. You're the guest Troy, so you're definitely not sleeping on the floor."

"Well you're not either."

"So do you have some brilliant idea, Mr. Bolton?"

"We could just share the bed," he said.

I laughed. "That's funny Troy. However, I need a serious thinker, not a funny man."

"I'm serious. I mean, the bed is huge, and I don't care about sharing if you don't."

I took a moment to think about it. I guess if we didn't touch, then it wouldn't be that bad. And also, when else would I have the chance to sleep with Troy Bolton? Sure, we wouldn't be doing anything, but it was still an opportunity that I couldn't let pass me by. "I guess it's fine," I told him.

"Cool. So are you ready to go to bed now?" he asked.

"Yeah. I just need to brush my teeth first and tell Shar goodnight."

"Yeah, I need to brush my teeth too," Troy said.

"We both went in my bathroom and brushed our teeth. I then went to Shar's room and opened the door. "Goodnight sis," I told her.

"Night Ryan. Where's Troy sleeping?" she asked.

"In my room."

"Oh. You know, the room next door is fine."

I told him. I think he was too afraid of you doing weird things to him in his sleep."

"Mmm. So is he sleeping on the floor?"

"No."

"So you are?"

I smiled a little bit. "No."

"Then where…?" After a few seconds, it hit her. "Wait, you're _sleeping_ with him!?"

"No, I'm not _sleeping_ with him, I'm simply sleeping with him."

"What's the difference, Ryan?"

"We're just lying in the same bed together. Like I said before, Troy's straight."

"Uh-huh. Have fun 'just lying' with Troy, sweetie."

"Have fun just lying by yourself," I said as I left and went back to my room.

"So what side of the bed do you sleep on?" Troy asked. He was sitting at the foot of the bed.

"The left," I told him. "What about you?"

"The right, so this will work perfectly," he said. He got under the covers and waited for me. I turned the light off and climbed into the bed.

"Goodnight Troy," I said to him.

"Goodnight Ryan," he said back. I smiled and drifted off to sleep.

**-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSMM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-**

I woke up the next morning with my face against something warm. I opened my eyes to find that I was nuzzling Troy's chest. That's when I also realized that his arms were around me and I had one arm draped on him. I looked up to see if he was awake too.

"Good morning Ryan." He was grinning quite a bit.

"Uh, good morning Troy. How long have you been awake?" I asked.

"About five minutes."

"So why haven't you moved yet?"

"You just looked so peaceful, I didn't want to disturb you."

"You mean you just wanted to see my face when I woke up like this."

Troy smiled again. "Maybe."

"You know, you're kind of evil."

"Maybe."

"Boys, breakfast is ready!" my mom called from downstairs.

We both jumped out of bed and left the room. When we got downstairs, mom asked me to get the milk and orange juice out of the refrigerator. I went to he kitchen, got the liquids out, and set them on the counter. As I closed the fridge door, someone put their hands over my eyes. Apparently Troy was still in a mischievous mood. "If you don't remove your hands in the next ten seconds, I will personally make sure that you are never able to have children," I threatened.

"And how do you plan on doing that, Ry-man?" Are you going to tear out my uterus or something?"

Oops. I guess it wasn't Troy. The person released me and I turned around to face her. "Lizzie!" I yelled. I jumped and gave her a big hug.

"Hi Ryan. You know, I like this greeting a lot better than the first one," she said.

I laughed. "Sorry about that. I thought you were Troy."

"Who's Troy?" she asked.

"A friend of mine. He's probably in the dining room. How did you get here so early?"

"I left late last night so I could spend the whole day with you guys," she said as she walked to the doorway and snuck a peek into the other room. She gasped a little and ran back over to me. "He is _hot_, Ryan. Much better looking than that troll that you dated last year.

I laughed. Obviously, my sister was not a fan of Adam. She was another one of the voices telling me to dump him. "Actually Liz, Troy's just a friend that stayed here last night."

"Uh-huh, sure he is bro. And so is Kyle."

I laughed at that. Kyle was Lizzie's long-term boyfriend. They had been together for six years now. "But Troy really is just a friend. Now if you don't mind, I am going to go eat some breakfast." I picked up the drinks and we both went in the dining room. I sat on Troy's right and she sat to his left.

"Hi. I'm Lizzie, Ryan's older sister," she said as soon as she sat down.

"Hey. I'm Troy Bolton, one of Ryan's friends." Lizzie's eyes bulged as soon as Troy said his last name. Apparently she hadn't realized exactly who he was. Of course, with an obsession like mine, my sister has heard plenty about Troy.

A little grin grew on her face and I was instantly scared. "So Troy, are you in drama club?" Basically, she was asking if he was gay. I don't know how many times I have to tell her that there are straight guys in the drama club. Granted, there were only two and hardly anyone believed that Zack really was, but still, she shouldn't be judging it like that.

"No, I'm not," Lizzie looked disappointed. "Though I was thinking I might join in the next week."

Lizzie perked right up at hearing that. "Really. So how long have you known?"

_"Shut __**up**__ Liz!"_

"How long have I known what?" Troy asked.

"That you were into… _drama_." She clearly meant "guys".

"Since last year when I met Gabriella." Uuuuugh. The poor boy had no idea what was going on. I had to do something soon so I could save him.

_"What to do? What to do?"_ I thought as I poured myself a glass of orange juice. _"That's it!"_ I had a sudden burst of inspiration.

"Liz, do you want to pour your juice for you?" I asked her.

"Sure. Thanks Ry-man."

I took her glass and filled it with juice. "So Troy," Liz continued, "How long have you and Ry- Aieegh!"

As I put her glass back at her place, I had "accidentally" knocked it over, spilling juice all over Lizzie's lap.

"I'm so sorry Lizzie," I said as I jumped up.

"It's fine. I'm going to go change."

I sat back down and we continued eating our breakfast. I looked at Sharpay to see her giving me a look that said I didn't have her fooled for a second. After a few minutes Liz came back down and we all finished eating. When we were done, Lizzie asked, "So what do you have planned for today, Ryan?"

"I think Troy and I were going to play our game some more today, but no big plans have been made. Actually, I forgot to ask, do you have any plans, Troy? It is Saturday, after all. You probably have lots of things to do, Mister Popular."

"I actually don't have anything planned. Do you think I could just hang out with you today?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. "That's fine with me. Liz?"

"I think it sounds great!" she said excitedly. "You two can go shopping with me."

"That depends. Where were you planning to go?" I asked.

"The mall."

"Then no."

"But why Ry-man?"

"Yeah, Ryan," Troy chimed in. "It could be fun."

"My last trip to the mall was a disaster," I told them.

"Come on, Ryan," Troy begged. He made an attempt at a puppy dog face, but it wasn't near as good as Izzy's. However, it _was_ Troy Bolton, so even though it wasn't as good, it still had the same effect.

"Okay," I said reluctantly.

"Awesome!" Lizzie said. "We'll go just as soon as you two get dressed."

We both went back into my room to get dressed. Sharpay had already picked an outfit out for me and it was sitting on my bed. I'm starting to get really tired of her doing that, but we had made an agreement that if she was dressed before I was, she got to choose my outfit. If I was first, then my outfit controlled what hers would be. Luckily, since it was the weekend, she was nice and let me wear jeans. It was those and a very colorful t-shirt. I told Troy to change in the bathroom and I went into my closet. I didn't want a repeat of last night. While I was in there I also grabbed my rainbow-striped hat and put it on. I went back in my room just as Troy was leaving the bathroom. He was also wearing jeans and with a black t-shirt.

"So are you ready?" he asked me.

"Yep. Let's go."

We went downstairs and found Lizzie. "We're ready," I told her.

"Cool. Let's go," she said. We went out to her car and she drove us to the mall.

After we got there, Lizzie immediately started to drag us from store to store. We spent half an hour in the first store, and another half an hour in the second. She didn't buy anything at either one. After another forty-five minutes in a third store, I was starting to get sick of it. As we got to the fourth store, I sat down on a bench in front of it.

"Ryan, what are you doing?" Lizzie asked.

"You know I like shopping with you sis, but I'm not going in another store until you buy something."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Whatever, Ry-man. I guess I'll just go by myself."

"I'll go with you Liz," Troy said. "Uh, I mean Lizzie. No, Elizabeth."

"Lizzie or Liz are both fine, Troy. And thank you for coming with me, since my brother's being dumb."

"No problem." They walked into the store together. I kind of wondered if Troy was starting to crush on my big sister. Hopefully not. Kyle wouldn't like that.

I decided that since I would probably be waiting for a while, I might as well listen to my ipod to keep myself entertained. I turned it on and tried to figure out what I wanted to listen to.. I eventually picked _I Write Sins Not Tragedies_ by Panic! At The Disco.

I had only gotten through the chorus the first time when someone said, "You know, you might want to be careful about where you sing that song and how loud you sing it."

I looked up. Gabriella was standing In front of me, smiling. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was singing out loud. How loud was I singing?"

"Loud enough that I could hear you from several feet away. And don't worry about it. I wasn't offended by it. I actually like that song. They're a good band. Can I listen with you?"

"Sure." She sat down and we listened to the rest of the song together. After it finished, _Misery Business_ by Paramore started to play.

Obviously Gabby had never heard it before, because at the intro she asked, "Can you please turn it up? This song isn't very loud." I smiled and did as she asked. She jumped when it picked up and shot me a glare. "You jerk! Why didn't you warn me about that!?"

"Because I thought it would be more fun that way. And I was right." I grinned at her.

She punched me in the shoulder. "It was still mean. And it wasn't funny." She then stopped talking and continued listening to the song. After a little while, she said, "You really like songs about whores, don't you?"

"Yep. I know a lot of them." She punched me again. "Ow! I didn't mean you!"

"You better not have meant me. So why are you even here, Ryan?"

"I'm just waiting for Liz and Troy to finish up," I said as I pointed to the store across from where we were sitting.

"Liz? Does Troy have a new girlfriend?" She looked worried. Poor thing. She really did still want him back.

"No. Lizzie's my older sister. She wanted to go shopping and Troy and I came with her."

"Oh." She looked a bit more relaxed. "So he's here with you?"

"Well sort of, I guess."

She tensed up again. "Oh. Well, I'm going to head out now. Don't tell Troy I was here."

"Why?" I asked.

"I can't explain right now. Just please don't tell him, okay?"

"Okay."

"Thanks. See you later, Ryan," she said with a wave as she ran off.

I sat there for a little bit, wondering what all that weirdness was about. Then I gave up trying to figure it out and went back to my music. I caught myself singing along and stopped, but then I decided that I didn't really care who heard or what they thought. After fifteen to twenty more minutes, Lizzie came back out with nothing in her hands, but a triumphant smile on her face.

"Why are you smiling? You still didn't buy anything," I asked.

"Yes I did," she said simply.

"Then where is it?"

"Troy's wearing it."

"What?" I looked at the door just as Troy was leaving the store. He was wearing the same hat that I was. That's right, he was wearing a rainbow-colored hat.

"What do you think?" Troy asked when he caught up with us.

"You look, you look…" I stared.

"You look like a fag!" Chad screamed. He was stomping over to us angrily. Seriously, did this guy _live_ in the mall? It seemed like he was always there when I was. Or maybe I just had a demonic stalker. "Dude, why are you wearing that stupid thing!?!" he asked Troy.

"Maybe I like it, Chad. Did you ever think about that?" Troy asked.

"No, because you wouldn't want to look like a f-"

"You say it again, and I'll tear out your throat," Lizzie threatened.

"What, are you another little ninja girl like that freshman?" Chad asked condescendingly, though I could tell that he was actually kind of scared.

"No," Lizzie answered, "but I'm Ryan's older sister, which means I have the Evans family temper, and that it's had more time to build up than Sharpay's has."

When she first said no, the fear had dropped out of his eyes, but now it was back, and more noticeable than before.

"Chad! Get your butt over here! Now!" Taylor yelled from several stores down. Chad ran over to her without another word to us.

"So that's the infamous Chad?" Lizzie asked.

"Yep."

"He's even worse than I pictured him. And much uglier too." Troy burst out laughing. "What?" she asked.

"It's just funny to hear girls saying that because he thinks he's like the hottest guy in school," Troy explained through his laughter.

"Oh, that's right. You're friends with him, aren't you?"

"Not anymore."

"Oh. So Ryan, what was that ninja girl comment about?" Lizzie asked me.

"Well, I have this new friend, Jessie. Last week, I was here with Izzy and Jessie and Chad started harassing us. In the time that it took me to blink, she had Chad flipped onto the floor on his back with her foot on his chest."

They both started laughing. "Oh I would have loved to see that!" Lizzie said.

"Me too!" Troy said. "And don't let me forget to thank her when we get back to school for handing Chad a big piece of humble pie. He's so full of himself that it's nearly intolerable. He needs to get shown every once in a while that he's not that great."

"I completely agree," I said. "So where to next, Sis?"

"Food," she replied simply.

"Where?" I asked.

"Food Court."

"Uuuugh."

"Deal with it, little bro. I'm craving Panda Express."

We went to the food court and Lizzie dashed off to Panda Express. I started to go get food and Troy followed me. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"Subway," I told him.

"Oh. Going for the healthiest one so you can keep your girlish figure?"

I laughed at that. "Absolutely not. If I wanted the healthiest thing in here, I would be going to the drinking fountain. I'm going to Subway because I am familiar enough with it to be at least somewhat comfortable with eating it."

"Why are you so familiar with Subway?" he asked.

"Because after you and Gabriella stole the Winter Musical last year, I had nothing to do, so I worked at the Subway for a few months."

"Really? I never knew that."

"That's because nobody really cares what I do,"

"That's not true, Ryan. I care. Well, what I mean is I think you're cool and a good friend."

"Whatever." We were at Subway now. The cashier looked up and a big smile popped up on her face.

"Hey Ryan! Long time no see!" She then noticed Troy behind me. "Is he with you?" she asked.

"Oh, this is Troy Bolton. Troy, this is Margaret. I used to work with her." Margaret let out a little gasp. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to bring Troy to the place where I used to talk about the athletic angel on a daily basis. Margaret snapped back into her business mode. "So what can I get you?" I'm guessing you want your usual, Ryan?"

"Yes please. And what do you want, Troy?"

"I'll just have the same, unless it's something weird."

"Club sandwich on Italian bread, toasted, and with nothing else on it," Margaret recited it from heart.

"That sounds good," Troy said. "Oh, and an orange soda."

"Coming right up," she said as she ran around to the back.

"Wait, why did she go back there?" Troy asked me.

"I was just wondering the same thing," I told him.

Margaret popped back out then. "Ryan, can you come back here? You're better at making the sandwich just right than any of us are."

I didn't buy that explanation for a second, but I decided to play along. "Okay. Troy, do you mind waiting here for a minute?"

"No problem," he said.

I went around to the back and was greeted by Brian and Joy, my twin former coworkers. "So you finally got the sexy boy that you kept talking about?" Joy asked excitedly.

"He's even hotter than you description," Brian said in wonder, sneaking another peek at Troy.

"Have you joined my team in the last few months, Brian?" I asked him.

"No, but I still have to admit that that is quite possibly the sexiest guy that I have ever seen in my entire life."

I laughed and started working on the sandwiches, since that's what Troy thought I was doing.

"So are you going to answer my question or not?" Joy asked.

"What was the question?" I asked.

"Are you dating that sex god out there or what?" Brian asked excitedly.

"You know Brian, Izzy's still single," I said with a smirk.

Joy hit me. "Stop picking on my brother and answer the question."

"No, we're not dating. Troy is just a friend. a _straight_ friend," I answered them.

They both seemed disappointed. "So is Izzy here with you?" Brian asked as he snuck another peek out front.

"No." He looked disappointed. "It's just me, Troy, and my sister."

Brian and Joy's eyes filled with fear. "Sharpay's here?" they gasped.

"No. We're here with Elizabeth, my older sister."

They visibly relaxed. "You should have told us that before. You just about gave me a heart attack," Joy said.

"Sorry. Hey can you take these out to Troy?" I asked, handing her the sandwiches that I had just finished. "And tell him I'll be out in a few minutes."

"Sure." She left with the sandwiches.

"So Izzy really isn't here?"

"No, he isn't. Why don't you just ask him out already, Brian?"

"Because I don't like guys, and I have a girlfriend. You know that."

Brian kept claiming he was straight, but like Zack in the drama club, nobody really bought it. He had a girlfriend and had been dating her for a year now. I'd never met her, but I knew that her name was Jasmine and they were such good friends that he just didn't have the heart to break up with her. "You know, you're just going to hurt her more if you keep this up."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ryan." His constant denial was just sad.

"Whatever. I'm going to go now. See you later Brian." I walked back out to the food court and found the table that Lizzie and Troy were sitting at. I sat down with them, grabbed my sandwich, and started eating.

"Is everything all right, Ryan?" Lizzie asked.

"Yeah. Brian just makes me mad sometimes."

"I'm sorry. Well, let's just finish eating, and then we can go home."

"Okay." We finished eating, left, and went home.

"So do you want to go back to the game?" Troy asked after we got back.

"Sure," I said, and we went up to my room to continue playing.

**-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-HSM-TRYAN-**

Troy stayed over again that night and left Sunday afternoon. On Monday we all checked the bulletin board again. There was no cast list, but there was a message telling everyone to meet again in the auditorium after school.

Class was torture that day. I couldn't focus on anything. I was way too excited about finding out what the play would be. Of, I was also anxious to see what my part was.

Gym class was probably the most painful. I've never really liked it, but today I didn't want to be in any class, so making me go to one that I hated so much was just mean. Add on the fact that it was the last class of the day and I was almost to my goal, and you get one frustrated teen. I was really happy that Coach Bolton had decided to make today just a free day, so I didn't have to worry about somebody accidentally pushing me off the edge and causing me to bludgeon them with a ball.

When we were released to the locker room to change, I ran in, changed into my regular clothes, and rushed out. By the time the bell rang, I was already closing my locker after getting my stuff out. I went straight to the auditorium and chose a seat in the middle of the front row. I wasn't surprised that Sharpay walked in as soon as I sat down. She was just as excited as me.

A few minutes later, everyone else started coming. Troy was the first in the wave in the wave and sat in the seat to my left. Izzy came in soon after and was rather annoyed with Troy's seating choice, since Sharpay was of course sitting on my other side, so Izzy's usual seat next to me was now gone. He settled on sitting next to Troy with an annoyed huff. Jessie sat next to him when she got there.

About five minutes passed and everyone was in the auditorium and settled into a seat. Ms. Darbus went up on the stage and Kelsi started passing scripts out to all of us. "So the first thing that I want to say is I am sorry for tricking all of you. It was never my plan to do _Hairspray_ as our show. I just wanted to get you all to audition so we would have a cast for Kelsi's show. So, our actual show is called _Camp Rock_!" Darbus announced excitedly. "Now, let me go through the cast list. Tess Tyler, the pop superstar's talented and popular daughter, will be played by Sharpay Evans. Shane Gray the moody rock star, and the lead's love interest, will be played by Troy Bolton. Jason and Nate, the other two members of Shane's band, will be played by Izzy Katsutphrakis and Darren Wardell." I still wonder about how about how Darbus figured out how to pronounce Izzy's last name on the first day of school. Most teachers still said something like cot-soot-fray-kees after having him all school year. Either that, or they just gave up and said "K" or "Katz". Izzy and I were both very impressed with her for doing that.

As she went on with the list, I stopped listening as closely and focused on Troy and Izzy, still listening for my name. They both looked excited, though Troy looked a bit nervous.

"So who do you think the lead will be?" he asked. Oh, so he was worried about who he'd have to kiss, since Darbus always either picked a show where the couple kissed at the end, or she would change it so that they did.

"I don't know," I said. "But at least it's not Sharpay." He nodded vigorously. "Maybe you'll be lucky and get Gabriella, since you two are good friends now, so that wouldn't be so weird."

"Gabriella Montez will be playing Lola," Darbus announced.

"Okay, forget that. Maybe it'll be Jessie. I think she would be a pretty good match for you."

"And Peggy will be played by Jessica Reynolds." Could she please stop doing that? I was trying to reassure Troy, and she was murdering every one of my attempts.

"Sorry," I told him. "She should be getting there soon, though."

"And finally, our lead character, Mitchell "Mitch" Torres, will be played by the wonderfully talented Ryan Evans." Did I ever mention that Darbus is completely in love with me? Wait. Did she just say that I was the lead? That means that I'm supposed to be paired up with Troy Bolton!

**Author's Note:** So there's the latest chapter. For all who are waiting for the next chapter of Freak, I 'm working on it right now. I hope to have it up soon. Everybody, please review this. More than half of the people that have read and liked this haven't reviewed. I appreciate that you like my story and it makes me feel really good, but I would like it even better if you reviewed and let me know what you think.


	5. Madness, Utter Madness

**Disclaimer:** I do not own High School Musical, Kingdom Hearts, Camp Rock, etc.

**Author's Note:** Hooray for a new chapter!

**The Life and Times of Ryan Evans**

**Chapter 5: Madness, Utter Madness**

This was just wonderful. I sort of actually mean that, but mostly that statement was just sarcasm. As I said before, Darbus had an obsession with making her leads kiss (which made for some very awkward stage kisses between my sister and me). That's why I knew without a doubt that I would be kissing Troy. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against kissing him. On the contrary. I have dreamt of kissing him for years. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was that not only was Troy not gay, but when I finally did get to kiss him, it was going to be in front of a huge audience. That meant no gushing over what happened. Also, I was pretty sure I would mess up, and when I did, everyone would see.

Why did this have to happen now? I just started really befriending Troy. We were getting closer and closer, and then Darbus pulls this. I could've strangled her. I turned to see how Troy was feeling. His face was blank. What did that mean? I wanted to ask him, but then we started reading through the script.

A few hours later, we finished. It looked like a pretty good show, and most of the songs sounded like they were good too. Kelsi played little snippets of them for us. I was excited to start working on it. Rehearsals were scheduled to start the next day after school. Everyone was hyped and ready to rehearse.

"Hey can you give me a ride home?" Izzy asked as everyone started leaving.

"Of course," I said. "As long as it's okay with you, Shar." I turned to her.

"Not a problem." We all went out to the car and she drove us home.

"Crap, I forgot to turn my phone back on, Izzy said as we got near his house. He turned it on and a minute later, it told him there were three voicemail messages. "I knew I forgot something this weekend. I forgot to tell my mom about the read through. She's not going to be very happy."

When we pulled up to his house, his mother was standing in font of the door with her arms crossed. That was not a good sign at all. Izzy got out of the car. "Izakiyah!" she screamed. She only used his full name when she was really pissed. He walked toward her and she started yelling at him in Russian. He yelled back, and they went back and forth like that for a while. After a bit, I heard my name and Izzy pointed at me.

"Ryan!" Izzy's mom exclaimed when she noticed me. She had rapidly switched from insanely angry to "yay you're here".

"So does that mean that you two are…"

"No mom, we're not getting back together," Izzy said in a very annoyed voice. We went through this every time I came to his house. Next she was going to ask why he'd dumped a nice boy like me.

"Why'd you dump Ryan? He is a good boy."

"I didn't dump him mother. We agreed together to break up. We've been through this a million times."

"Well I still say you'd be lucky to find another boy who is as nice as Ryan. And he is so cute too," she said, walking over and pinching my cheeks. She always did this right before commenting on my weight and trying to feed me.

Right on cue she poked me in the side. "You are too skinny. Come inside, I just made cookies."

"You made cookies?" Izzy asked excitedly.

"Not for you. They are for work. Tomorrow is Isabel's birthday."

"But you just offered Ryan some," he complained.

"That is because Ryan is a good boy. He does not run around everywhere he wants and worry his poor mother."

"I'm sorry mom. I didn't mean to worry you."

"It is okay. Now go inside. It is almost time for dinner. Would you like to join us, Ryan?"

"Sorry, but my sister is waiting for me and we need to head home, otherwise our mother might worry."

Izzy shot me a dirty look just before going in the house. "Well that is okay," she said. "Just make sure you eat when you get home."

"Yes Ms. Katsutphrakis."

She smiled and went inside yelling something else in Russian as she closed the door. I had no idea how to say it, but since she said the phrase so often, Izzy eventually told me what it meant. She was yelling, "Why can't you be more like Ryan?"

I laughed and got in Sharpay's car. "That was interesting," she said.

"Yeah. I guess I forgot that you've never met her before. I probably should have warned you so you'd be ready for a big loud Russian woman. Sorry."

"That's fine." she said, and she drove us home.

For the rest of the week, we had rehearsals every day after school. Not everyone was called every day because we only worked on certain parts of the show each day. On Friday, everyone was called and we started working out the final number. It was a song called _"We Rock"_. It wasn't exactly a thought-provoking song, but it was upbeat and a good way to end the show. When rehearsal was over, Darbus had us gather on the apron as she took her favorite stage position: down center.

"Alright everyone, that was a good rehearsal. Now, you are all called to be here at ten tomorrow morning until two in the afternoon." This statement was met with many groans. "Yes, I know you don't want to spend your Saturday here, but it is necessary. Also, I want you to all work on your lines this weekend. That is all. You may all go now."

We all got up and started to leave. "Hey Ryan," Troy called to me before I had left. "Do you want to hang out again this weekend?" He really needed to stop asking dumb questions like that.

"Sure." I did my best not to sound too excited. "Do you want to go to your house this time?"

"Um, actually I was hoping to go to your house again."

"Oh, okay."

"Is Lizzie going to be there again this weekend?"

I knew it! He _was_ crushing on my sister! "No, she's staying at school this weekend. You know Troy, you need to be careful about crushing on an Evans. It's dangerous territory."

"What!? A crush on an Evans?! I, uh, what do you mean?" He looked kind of freaked out.

"You like my sister. It's fine. Just know she's madly in love with her boyfriend and nothing can ever happen between the two of you."

Troy's face relaxed. "Oh. I don't have a crush on Lizzie. I just had fun hanging out with her. So do you want to ride home with me again?"

"Why, did you already forget the way to my house?"

"No, I just figured you might want to ride with me rather than your sister."

"Excuse me, but I heard that Bolton!" Sharpay had been standing a few feet away and was now standing right in front of us.

"Sorry Sharpay. I was just kidding, but do you want to ride with me?" He asked again.

"Sure. That

It's okay with you, right Shar?"

"Yep. Just don't take too long getting home." She winked and walked off. I really wished that my family would stop being so suggestive. When my parents did it, I wasn't too surprised. They liked teasing me. Now Sharpay doing it, that really was surprising. She'd been so obsessed with Troy for so long that I was sure she would feel threatened by my friendship with him. Instead, she accepted it and just poked fun at me.

I followed Troy out to his truck and we drove to his house. Once again, he demanded that I come inside.

"Do you want to wait in the kitchen again?" he asked. His face suggested that he didn't really want to give me this option, but felt he had to.

"I'll go with you this time," I told him. I wanted to avoid another awkward encounter with his mother.

He smiled when I gave him the answer he wanted and walked up the stairs with me wondering what the magical space that was Troy's room would look like. He opened the door and I followed him in.

The room didn't have a heavenly glow like I had imagined, but it wasn't an utter disappointment either. It was cleaner than I had expected it to be, though not spotless. There weren't any clothes on the floor like you find in most teenage boys' rooms. There were, though, video games and books lying around the room. There was a poster of some basketball player that I didn't know on one wall. Again not a surprise, since he liked basketball so much. What did surprise me was the Kristen Chenoweth poster on the wall above his bed.

Yes she was adorable and could sing almost unearthly notes, but she wasn't exactly the kind of woman you'd expect a straight guy to be drooling over. If I was going to find a poster of a woman on a guy's wall, I would expect it to be someone more like Anne Hathaway. Wait, that's just who _I_ would be crushing on if I was straight. I guess straight guys are actually more into women like Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, or Jessica Simpson. Pretty much any girl named Jessica. But no, Troy Bolton's wall featured a Broadway superstar dressed up as the Good Witch Glinda. I don't mean any offense by this, but quite honestly it was one of the gayest things I had ever seen in a straight guy's bedroom. Not that I've been in many straight guy's bedrooms.

Troy noticed me eyeing the poster. "Gabriella got me that a few weeks ago," he said, looking a bit embarrassed. "She knew I liked her in "Pushing Daisies" and I recently discovered the _Wicked _soundtrack and fell in love with it."

"Uh-huh" I continued looking around the room and let him get back to packing. There was one other picture on the wall. To the side of Troy's bed, there was a photograph hanging. I got close and recognized the picture right away. It was the one we took after the talent show this summer. All of the East High kids were in the picture and everyone had big smiles on their faces, even Chad. I'd like to point out though that Chad was on the far edge of the group, as far away from me as possible. Troy, however, had his arm around my shoulders.

Of course, I had what was quite possibly the biggest smile in the history of the world plastered on my face. I mean, I knew that his other arm was around his girlfriend, but I didn't care because Troy Bolton was touching me. Wait a second. I took a closer look at the picture. Troy's arm actually wasn't around Gabriella, and even though she was leaning toward Troy, she was not actually touching him. I found that a bit odd and wanted to ask him about it, but decided against it. They broke up again two weeks after that picture was taken, and this time for good. My guess was that they were already starting to have problems and just trying not to make it obvious. Troy still had a huge smile on though. He really was a good actor.

"I'm ready babe," Troy said behind me.

"What?" I said as I turned around.

"I said I'm ready… bud, dude, man, buddy boy, home skillet, Ry-meister, uh…"

"I get it Troy. You can stop with all the nicknames."

"Thanks," he said.

"No problem." We started walking out of his room. "Oh and Troy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't ever call me Ry-meister again."

Troy laughed. "No problem."

"Troy, who's up there with you?" we heard his mom call from downstairs.

We both went down to the kitchen to greet her. She gave what seemed to be a knowing smile when she saw me come down. "Hello Ryan. What were you two doing up there?" She asked, looking at her son.

"I was just getting my stuff together," Troy told her. "Dad told you I was staying at Ryan's this weekend, right?"

"Yes, he did. So are you guys heading out now?"

"Yes," Troy told her.

"Well _be careful_," she said, giving her son a meaningful look.

"We will mom," he said, rolling his eyes.

As we got in the truck and drove off, I asked him, "So did you get caught doing something you're not supposed to?"

"What? Why do you ask?"

"Well your mom's all up in your business and throwing warnings at you every time you leave the house."

"Oh, she always does that. She's just overly protective."

"Aren't all mothers?"

Troy laughed. "That's true. So when we get to your house, do you want to do lines first, or play the game?"

"We probably ought to do our lines first."

"Yes, but you didn't answer the question. What do you _want_ to do first?"

I thought about it for a few seconds and decided to go with the more responsible decision. "Lines."

Troy looked disappointed, but he nodded. "You're right. We should work first, then we can have fun."

I nodded in agreement. We rode in silence the rest of the way. After we pulled up to the house, we gathered our things and went inside. "So are you okay with bunking with me again?" I asked.

"Absolutely."

"Good, because the choices are the same as last time." We went up to my room and set our things down. "So let's get right to work," I said as I pulled my script out of my schoolbag."

Troy sighed. "Okay." He took his own script out of his backpack. "So where should we start?"

"The beginning I guess." So that's where we started. We did the very beginning first, so we had to take turns reading lines that weren't ours to help prompt the other. After we started to get the hang of those, we moved on to the lines we had together.

The mood between our characters at the beginning was a bit tense. My character, Mitch, thinks that Troy's character, Shane, is a stuck up rich jerk because, well, he is. Mitch is the only one with the balls to stand up to him though, since everyone else worships Shane the superstar. The scene we were working on was one of the first times Mitch points out Shane's jerkiness. I basically tell him to cut the crap because he's really not that cool and his music sucks. This of course causes him to start to fall for me because deep down he craves for someone to humble him. We hadn't worked out any blocking with Kelsi yet, so we decided to just sit close across from each other. I had just said my line, and the next thing the script told us to do was to stare into each other's eyes. I'm doing it because even though I think he's a jerk, I still have a schoolboy crush on him. He's staring because he's admiring the unique individual that is sitting in front of him. We were doing this and then Troy leaned in kissed me.

My instinctual reaction was to kiss him back, so that's what I did. After about three seconds though, my mind kicked into gear and pulled away. "Wait, Troy, we're not supposed to until the end."

"Oh, right." He backed away. "Sorry. I guess I just got caught up in the moment."

"That's fine. So I think that's enough rehearsal for now. Do you want to play the game now?"

"Yes," he immediately said, eager to get off of the awkward subject that we were currently on. I got the game and popped it in. We started to play. I let Troy have the first turn. It seemed to calm him down.

Troy finished his turn and then I went on to mine. I made the stupid mistake of sitting up again and my back started hurting. I had actually decided to sit up because I didn't want Troy to feel any more uncomfortable than he already was. Since he seemed to be doing better now, I decided to lie down. My back was still bugging me a bit so I was still wriggling around. Troy must have noticed because after about five minutes, I felt a slight shift on the bed and he was on my back again.

"Hey Troy?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"You looked like your back was bothering you again."

"Well it is, but you don't need to do that," I said, putting the game on pause.

"Why? Does it not help? Am I hurting you?" he asked, sounding panicked.

"No, it's not that," I assured him. "You just don't have to rub my back. It'll get better on its own."

"But doesn't it feel better when I do this?" he asked as he put his hands back down on me. I let out a soft moan. Troy chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes. And don't you feel better faster this way?"

"Yes, but I don't mind if it takes longer."

"Well I do."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like seeing you in pain."

"It's not that bad Troy."

"I know, but I don't want to see you in any pain at all."

"Why?"

"Because…"

"Because what?" I asked as I turned around.

"Because…" To finish his answer, he leaned down and kissed me again.

I froze. _"What the hell?!"_ I thought to myself. There was no way this was really happening. Troy pulled away. "And that wasn't me rehearsing," he told me, laughing at his own joke.

"Am I being punked?" I know, stupid thing to say, but it was the first thing I could think of.

Troy laughed again. "No. This is not a trick or anything,"

"Then what is it?"

"Well, I thought that it would be obvious that I like you, Ryan."

"And by 'like' you mean…?"

"I mean I think you're cute, and not in an adorable puppy dog way."

"What? But you're straight."

He shook his head and climbed off of me. "No, no I'm not."

What? This made no sense at all. "But what about Gabriella?"

"You know that she was my first girlfriend, don't you?"

"Yes, but she was your _girlfriend_. Gay guys don't date girls, Troy. Trust me, I know."

"Yeah, but I'm sure you also know that they tend to experiment. Not all guys can come out in the seventh grade like you."

"So Gabriella was your experimental girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"But you seemed pretty straight before her, and you were like, the perfect boyfriend to her."

"I know. I tried really hard, but in the summer, we both realized what was going on. That's why we broke up. That's also why it was so painless."

"You mean she didn't decide that she was cursed and turned you gay?"

"No."

"And she didn't get all pissed at you for messing with her?"

"No. She had already figured it out and wanted to know who I liked so she could help me get him."  
"But what about when we checked the cast list?" Wasn't she like begging for you back?"

"I already told you, no. She was actually warning me that I was getting to obviously flirtatious.

"Oh. But what about all those times that you messed with my sister?"

"The flirting was never meant for her," he said while he touched my cheek. "I was just lucky enough to have her as a shield so no one knew what I was really doing."

I blushed. "Oh."

"So now there's just one other thing," he said.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Do you like me back?"

That's when I cracked. I started laughing hysterically. I couldn't help it. This situation was just so bizarre and totally belonged in a parallel universe.

"So I guess that's a no," Troy said with a hurt look on his face.

That calmed me right down. "No, I'm sorry, it's just I can't believe this is happening. You have no idea how many times I've fantasized about going out with you. Yes, Troy, I like you. A lot."

A big grin popped up on his face. Oh yay! I made that happen! "Really?" he asked.

I leaned in and kissed him. "Does that answer your question?"

He looked very happy. "Yeah, I think that's an acceptable answer. So exactly how many times have you fantasized about going out with me?" He asked with a smirk.

"Um, that's not that important," I said with a blush creeping up my face.

"Oh, you're cute when you're embarrassed," he said, giggling a little. Yes, Troy Bolton giggled. I blushed even harder. "Okay, so different question. How long have you liked me?"

Great. This was a fun question. My cheeks were burning by now. "Sixth grade," I murmured.

"What?" Troy asked, not hearing my answer.

"I've had a crush on you since sixth grade," I said loud enough for him to hear.

"Wow. That long?"

My head felt like it was going to burst into flames. "Yeah. So what about you?"

Now it was Troy's turn to blush. "It's kind of embarrassing."

"Oh come on Troy. I've liked you for four years. I doubt it can be any worse."

"Well, it started last year, the first time I met one of your boyfriends. I had English with Izzy last year, and even before you two started dating, he talked about how great you were. I think that I actually may have liked you a bit before that, but that was what accelerated it. It took me a while to figure out why I was so mad at him for a week."

"Why were you?" I asked.

Troy laughed. "Because he was dating you, Ryan," he said in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

"Oh." Well I felt dumb.

"Yeah. But like I said I didn't quite realize what was happening until later. I really did think I had feelings for Gabriella. It wasn't until Lava Springs when I realized what was going on in my head. When I caught you and Gabriella dancing by the pool, as I'm sure you know, I got jealous."

I nodded. "Yeah. I thought that was ridiculous, since you knew very well that I was gay. I certainly wasn't going to steal your girlfriend."

He laughed again. "So, the thing is, I wasn't jealous of you. I was jealous that you were dancing with Gabriella…" Isn't that what I just said? "…and not with me." Huh. That was certainly not what I was expecting.

"You were jealous because you wanted to dance with me?"

"Yes."

"Huh. So do you want to get back to the game?" I asked him.

"Yes, but can I ask you one more thing first?"

"Sure."

"Can I kiss you again?"

I pretended to think about it for a moment. "I think that I can deal with that."

He smiled and this time we both leaned in for the kiss. Unlike our previous kisses, this one was deeper. It wasn't quite so innocent. I wrapped my arms around Troy's waist and he brought his hands up to my head, twisting his fingers into my hair. He was completely messing it up, but I decided that didn't matter. After all, that's what hats are for. We were starting to really get into it when the door opened.

"Ryan, mom and dad called and¾ oh my god!" Needless to say, Sharpay was stunned. "What are you two doing!?"

"Well Sharpay, I _think_ that I was making out with your brother," Troy said in an annoyed tone.

"What? But you, you're not gay."

"Wrong. Anyways, didn't you already think there was something between us? You've certainly been acting like you did, what with the little remarks you have been making."

"But, but that was just me teasing my little brother. I didn't really think that…"

"That you were going to lose the guy you've been going after for the past three years to your 'little' brother?"

I laughed at that. I hadn't really thought about it like that yet. "Oh shut up Ryan!" Shar snapped, and with that she stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"I don't think she's very happy," Troy said through laughter.

I punched him playfully in the arm. "It's not funny Troy."

"I disagree. I think it really is Ry, er, Ryan."

I chuckled. "Ry's fine," I said, and kissed him on the cheek.

Then my phone rang. "Sorry Troy, just a second."

"It's fine."

I answered the phone without checking to see who it was. I just wanted to get the conversation over with so I could get back to Troy. "Hello?"

"You little BASTARD!" the voice on the other end screamed.

"What?"

"Why did you tell Sharpay before me!?"

"Liz, stop screaming. You're going to destroy my hearing." Troy was cringing next to me in agreement. I laughed.

"This is not a laughing matter Ryan! Are you seriously dating Troy Bolton?"

"Well not exact…" I looked at Troy, asking him with my eyes what to say. He nodded and mouthed "yes". "Uh, yes, I guess I am."

"So why did you lie to me last weekend?" She sounded hurt.

"I didn't. It actually just happened a few minutes ago. Shar walked in on us kissing and freaked out."

"Ah. So then she ran to her room and called me?"

"I guess so. She probably knew how you would react and figured that was a deserving punishment for me."

"Wait. So does that mean that Troy is still in the house?" she asked uncomfortably.

Troy leaned over to the phone. "Hi Lizzie."

"Um, hi Troy. You know, I'll just leave you guys alone. Sorry." She hung up.

I shot Troy a glare. "What?" he asked.

"You chased my sister away."

"Sorry. I guess I just wanted to spend some more time with you. So do you want to finish up your turn on the game?"

"Yeah." We went back to the game and I finished my turn. After that, I turned it off. "So what do you want to do now?" I asked.

"Well…" he trailed off.

"Get that mischievous grin off your face," I scolded him. "My sister's right down the hall and could walk in at any moment."

"So lock the door. Anyways, it's not like we'd be going any further than kissing right now."

"Well first of all, even that would be enough to make her freak in her current mood. Second, if the door was locked, she'd take it down with an axe."

"Right. Well how about a movie?"

"Sure. But let's rent one this time."

"Okay, sounds good."

"Oh, but we'll have to take your truck."

"That's fine."

Cool. Let me go tell Shar first. You might want to wait here."

"That definitely sounds like a good idea."

I walked down the hall and knocked on Sharpay's door. "Come in," she said in response.

I opened the door. "Hey Sharpay, Troy and I are going to go get a movie."

"Okay Ry. Can you get some Rocky Road while you're out?"

"I was planning to make some cookies again."

"Oh good, those will go good with my ice cream."

I sighed. Great, she was in one of _those_ moods. "Okay sis, will do."

"Oh, and I was coming in before to tell you that mom and dad called and said that they were staying at a hotel tonight before they head off to Paris tomorrow morning."

I nodded. "Okay. Thanks for telling me. And Sharpay,"

"Yes Ryan?"

"I'm really sorry about what happened. I wouldn't have wanted you to find out that way. It was really sudden. I mean, I would have told you as soon as I could. After Telling Liz first, of course."

"Ryan, stop. It's not that big of a deal. Sure, I'm disappointed, but I actually was starting to get suspicious of Troy. Don't feel bad."

"But the ice cream…"

"I didn't say I was completely unfazed by it, just not totally shocked. Now go."

"K. Seeya later sis." I started to walk out.

"Oh and Ryan?"

"Yeah?" I asked, turning back around.

"I'm sorry about the Lizzie thing. That was a little low, even for me."

"It's fine." I walked out of the door to find Troy standing in the hallway waiting for me.

"So are you ready to go?"

"Yep. I just need to get a hat first."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because, Mr. Bolton, you messed up my hair."

He blushed. "Oh. I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine." I went in my room and got the hat that I had been wearing at school. "We also need to get some ice cream on the way back." I told him as I walked back out.

"Okay. Why?"

"Sharpay needs some cheering up."

"Oh. I'm sorry for causing drama."

"It's fine Troy. With Sharpay everything is drama."

"I guess that's true." We went out to the truck and he drove us to Blockbuster. We walked into the store.

Surprisingly, the place was dead. There wasn't a single customer in there and only one employee was working that night. She looked utterly bored when we got there. After we walked in, she perked right up. "Hi! Welcome to Blockbuster!" She was a cute girl. She was about 5' 4" with hazel eyes and black hair with blue streaks through it.

"Wow. It's kind of… dead in here," Troy said, looking around.

"It's the grand opening of that new video store," she said. "They're giving one dollar rentals all weekend."

"Oh yeah!" Troy exclaimed, apparently remembering it.

"Please don't leave," the girl said quickly.

"Worried about what will happen if you don't get any business tonight?" Troy asked.

"No, I'm just bored out of my skull. I was beginning to seriously contemplate testing to see how many movie cases I could balance on my head at once."

Troy and I both laughed. "Isn't it always boring working her on a Friday night instead of going out?" Troy asked.

She shook her head. "You'd think so, but usually it's full of people. Also, it's date night for most couples, so I get to watch all of their ridiculous antics and make fun of them for the rest of the week."

"I know, that can be really fun sometimes," I said.

"You do it too?" she asked.

"Yeah. I used to, at least, when I was working."

"Oh." She nodded. "People watching's fun when you have nothing better to do."

"Hey, Ry?" Troy said from behind me.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"I'm going to go look," he said.

"Okay." He walked off to find a movie and I turned around to continue talking to the girl.

"Thanks for not leaving," she said gratefully.

"No problem. My sister would have my head if I went to that new store."

"Why?"

"She's banned it because this girl that she can't stand works there."

"Wait, are you Sharpay's brother?" she asked.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Lately whenever your sister comes in here, she has been talking about how she is never stepping foot in that place because some girl she hates named Susan Chestnut is going to work there."

"That's Shar for you."

"Yeah. No offense, but I don't get how you can live with her."

"Sometimes I wonder about that too."

That made her laugh. "So, is it date night for you tonight?" she asked, nodding her head toward Troy.

"Are you going to make fun of me all week if I say yes?"

"No."

"Then yes. Well, actually, this is kind of our first real thing together. I just found out in the last hour that he was gay."

"Wow. You mean you didn't figure it out before?"

"No. Why?" Did Troy have homosexuality oozing out of his pores or something? I thought that was just me.

"Well it's just that he seems _pretty_ into you," she said. "I would think that those kinds of feelings would be fairly hard to hide."

"Well most people don't want to think that he could be gay. The girls at school will be crushed." I smirked. "And, I can be a little slow sometimes."

"That explains it."

At that point Troy walked up to us with a movie case. "How about this one?" he asked.

I took it out of his hand and looked at it. "_Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist_?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Is that okay? I can get something else."

"No. I really wanted to see it, I just didn't think you would."

"Ryan, remember what we watched last week."

"Good point." I handed the movie to the girl at the counter.

"You know, my boyfriend loves this movie," she said as she took it.

"Your boyfriend?" I asked.

"Yeah. He's read the book like a hundred times. He just recently got his hands on the authors' other book."

"No offense," I said, "but isn't Nick and Norah kind of…"

"Gay?" she filled in.

"Exactly."

She nodded. "Yes it is, but I think my boyfriend's gay, so it makes sense."

That was when I finally looked at her nametag. _"No way."_ I thought to myself. Her name was Jasmine. It could have just been a coincidence, but I doubted that. The next thing I knew, my finger shot out and pointed at her. "You're Brian Johnson's girlfriend!" I yelled.

"How did you know that?" she asked.

"I used to work with him."

She gasped. "You're _that_ Ryan!"

"Yeah."

"He used to talk about you all the time. So you must agree with me then."

"Yes. I'm pretty sure he is, least."

"Either that or he's European." She laughed.

I laughed along with her. "Well he's not European, and doesn't play peculiar sports in shiny shirts and tiny shorts, so he must be gay."

"What?" Troy was lost.

"It's a _Legally Blonde_ reference."

He looked even more confused. "I don't remember…"

"It's from the musical," Jasmine told him.

"Okay. So that's why I have no idea what you two are talking about." We laughed at him. "So why are you still dating him if you think he's gay?"

Jasmine sighed. "He's such a sweetheart. I don't want to hurt him."

"That's exactly why he won't break up with you," I told her.

"I figured. So what do I do?"

"I say you just break up with him." She gave me a skeptical look. "Really. Give me your number and I'll give you mine. Let me know when you do it and I'll try to help him. Also, just tell him your real reasons for ending it, if you think it will help."

"That might work, I guess," she said. We exchanged numbers and then she rented our movie out to us.

"Thanks Jasmine," I said on our way out.

You're welcome. And thanks for the company."

"No prob¾" My phone rang. "Sorry, it's my sister."

Jasmine's eyes got wide. "Answer it now if you value all of our lives!"

I chuckled and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Where is my ice cream!?"

"Sorry Shar, we got distracted."

"Well stop making out with Troy and get my ice cream!"

"Okay. And we weren't making out!" She had already hung up.

"Troy?" Jasmine asked. "As in the sex god?"

I blushed. "Brian and Joy came up with that nickname, not me. So he told you about that?"

"Yes. He was right, too. No amount of description could possibly do him justice." She looked back out at Troy, who had already gone to the truck.

I began to blush even more fiercely. "Well I'd better go. Don't want to keep my sister waiting."

"Yes, please do. I don't want her coming here."

I walked out the door with a wave and joined Troy in the truck." So where to now?" he asked.

"Albertson's. It's the only place where I can always find her ice cream."

"Okay. Albertson's it is, then." He drove us to the store and we went inside. I went straight to the frozen foods aisle and grabbed the ice cream. One pint of Ben and Jerry's Rocky Road. It was the only kind she would eat without first having a giant freakout.

We went to the checkout stand. Allen, from the drama club, was working that night. Those of you who saw the _Twinkle Towne_ auditions will probably remember him. His singing left little to be desired. I am glad to say that since then, he has improved greatly. He's not lead material or anything yet, but he was perfect for the chorus.

He took the ice cream from me and looked at it. "What did you do, Ryan?" he asked, looking up at me.

"Nothing!"

Allen snorted. "Yeah right. You must have done something if you have to bring Sharpay her two special guys."

"Can't Ben and Jerry visit without incident?"

"No." He noticed who I was with and smirked. "Oh. Hi Troy."

"Uh, hi," Troy said uncomfortably.

Allen gave me an evil little smirk. I shot him a "shut up" glare. He didn't say anything else. I tried to silently tell him to keep this incident to himself, but I wasn't sure how well it came across. Hopefully he got it. Allen wasn't always the best at keeping secrets."

We walked out and back into the truck. "I'm sorry about that," I told Troy while he drove home.

"Why?" he asked.

"I didn't think about the fact that someone from school might see us there."

"It's fine Ryan."

"You say that now, but Allen has trouble keeping his mouth shut about these kinds of things."

"Really? He doesn't strike me as the gossip type."

"He's not. He just doesn't know when to shut his mouth and not say anything."

"Oh. Well that's okay."

"Troy, I don't think you get it. By Monday, there's a good chance that most of the school will know that we were together at Albertson's."

"So? People saw us at the mall and several people already knew that I was going to your house this weekend."

"Yes, but even though Allen may not get some things, he's smart. I could already see him working it out. I was buying Rocky Road, which meant Sharpay was upset about something. You were with me when I bought it, which suggests that it had something to do with you. So the logical conclusion is¾"

"Ryan, stop. I don't really care."

But even if it isn't confirmed, rumors will spread around, and they're bound to reach your father. Then he'll confront you about it."

"I don't think he will."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Because both of my parents already know I'm gay."

"What?"

"I told them about a month ago."

"You didn't tell me that."

"Well you didn't ask."

Some things in my head clicked together then. "That's why your mom has been so weird every time I see her. You already told them you like me." Another thing hit me. "You're the reason I have to work in P.E!" I said accusingly.

"What?" he asked.

"Your father didn't pay attention to me in the past, but now I can't just glide through class." I pouted and crossed my arms.

"I'm sorry Mr. Lazy."

"Hey!"

He laughed. "Just kidding." I started laughing. He pulled up to the house and we went inside, both still laughing.

**Author's Note:** So there's the next chapter. I tried to get it out fast. Now, I'm not sure if they actually have Albertson's grocery stores in New Mexico, but I've decided that they do. I am so happy to see more and more people enjoying this story. I know I am enjoying writing it. As always, please review.


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